36 THE VITAMINES 



isms, we cannot maintain that we know all that there is to be known 

 of the requisite food constituents, as long as we shall not have 

 obtained them (including vitamines) in the chemically pure form. 

 This applies naturally even more to other animals, about whose 

 metabolism we are still less informed. It is therefore of greatest 

 importance, at this stage of our knowledge, to disregard generaliza- 

 tions of this sort since they are detrimental to the development of 

 the questions that interest us. 



We shall now consider the work leading to the present conception 

 of the three different vitamine types. When we pointed out in 1912 

 (I.e. 62) l that the animal organism needs vitamine for complete 

 nutrition, the term, "vitamine," was used only in a very general way. 

 At that time, we drew a distinction between the antiberiberi, anti- 

 scorbutic and antirachitic vitamines, although this classification was 

 based only upon the physical characteristics, origin and influence on 

 metabolism. New facts have been brought to light, but this classi- 

 fication has remained unchanged. We knew in 1912 that the pericarp 

 of grains contained something that was of importance in the metab- 

 olism of man and certain species of birds. Then Schaumann (I.e. 2) 

 found that yeast and some animal extracts contained a subtance of 

 similar nature. Furthermore, it was known that man as well as 

 the guinea pig was in need of a vitamine as a protection against 

 scurvy a vitamine that was recognized by us to be quite different 

 from the antiberiberi vitamine. In spite of the above mentioned 

 facts and the work of Stepp (I.e. 6, 7) already referred to, and in 

 spite of the results of vitamine research in 1911, the new ideas were 

 not immediately applied to the general science of nutrition. The 



1 I regarded it of paramount importance, that the then ruling conception 

 of the necessity of the lipoids or the nuclein substances was substituted by the 

 fundamentally different vitamine theory. At the same time, I must admit 

 that when I chose the name, "vitamine," I was well aware that these sub- 

 stances might later prove not to be of an amine nature. However, it was 

 necessary for me to choose a name that would sound well and serve as a catch- 

 word, since I had already at that time no doubt about the importance and 

 the future popularity of the new field. As we have noted in the historical 

 part, there was no lack of those who suspected the importance of still other 

 dietary constituents, besides those already known, for the nutrition of animals. 

 These views were unfortunately unknown to me in 1912, since no experimental 

 evidence had appeared in their support. I was, however, the first one to 

 recognize that we had to deal with a new class of chemical substances, a view 

 which I do not need to alter now after eight years. 



