88 



THE VITAMINES 



unpolished rice and cod liver oil (Funk and Macallum 245). The 

 animal was normally built but weighed only 160 grams while a chicken 

 of this age should weigh about two kilos. No symptoms that could 

 have been regarded as rachitic were noted. 



The animal had a large beak and excessively long feathers for his 

 size; all secondary sexual indications were lacking and it chirped like 

 a four weeks old chick. 



On white rice, the young chickens died (I.e. 244) after about two 

 weeks, while on unpolished rice it was possible to keep them alive for 

 more than 5 weeks. When the young chickens were fed Spratt's 

 chicken food, the weight increased more than twice, while on unpol- 

 ished rice for 4 weeks, there was no growth at all. These experi- 



FIG. 8. SEVEN MONTHS OLD CHICKENS 



Normal diet and a diet of unpolished rice and cod liver oil. (Funk -Mac- 

 allum). Left 2500 grams; right 160 grams. 



ments were conducted with 15 days old chickens and were later 

 repeated, with the same results (Funk 246). In all exact feeding 

 experiments with chickens, it is necessary, particularly during the 

 summer, to cover the cages with muslin, otherwise they eat so many 

 flies that the results may be misleading. We have often observed 

 that a chicken which grew in spite of a deficient diet stopped growing 

 promptly as soon as the cage was covered. 



Drummond (247) 3 carried our experiments further and criticized 

 our results rather sharply. He found that the possibility of raising 



3 After my departure from the London Cancer Hospital Research Institute 

 in 1915, my former assistant, J. C. Drummond, continued a great number of 

 experiments started by me, without communicating with me, and without 

 stating in his publications that the ideas had originated with me. 



