106 THE VITAMINES 



that the organs undergo atrophy in the following order: thymus, 

 testicle, spleen, ovary, pancreas, heart, liver, kidney, stomach, 

 thyroid and brain. McCarrison made the very interesting and 

 important observation that the suprarenals are often hypertrophied, 7 

 and that this hypertrophy bore a causative relationship to the onset 

 of edema (I.e. 290). He believed that in unpolished rice, butter 

 (particularly in butter, as will be noted later) and onions, there was a 

 substance which was protective against edema, and which might be 

 thought of as vitamine A. 



McCarrison found also that the brain, suprarenals and the pitui- 

 tary, are very sensitive to a lack of vitamine. The sexual organs 

 in males showed a disappearance of spermatogenesis, with resulting 

 sterility; in females, there was a condition similar to amenorrhea. 

 This is in opposition to the fact that we mated pigeons, cured of beri- 

 beri, and secured a completely normal progeny. It is nevertheless 

 possible that in these cases, there may have been a regeneration. 



During the course of his fruitful investigations, McCarrison also 

 examined the muscles and found them highly atrophied, while the 

 central nervous system was only slightly so; he attributed the result- 

 ant paralytic symptoms directly to the impaired functional ability 

 of the nerve cells. Because of the remarkable atrophy of the thymus, 

 testicles, ovaries, and spleen, much more apparent than in other 

 organs, resulting from the lack of vitamines, he believed that these 

 organs provided the distressed organism with the needed vita- 

 mine. When this reserve is exhausted then the bones are the 

 purveyors of the vitamine, in which case the marrow undergoes 

 marked changes. Red corpuscles are also diminished about 25 per 

 cent. Finally, McCarrison regarded the whole picture of beriberi as 

 a syndrome, arising from, (1) a chronic inanition; (2) a pathological 

 change of the organs of digestion and assimilation; (3) an abnormal 

 functioning of the internal secretory glands, especially of the supra- 

 renals; and (4) poor nutrition of the central nervous system. In 

 addition to all these factors, there is also a decreased resistance to 

 the bacterial invasion. McCarrison (297) at first erroneously 

 attributed to the latter condition the entire picture of beriberi, but 

 he has long since abandoned this view. The pathological histology 

 of beriberi in pigeons is described by McCarrison (298) in a special 

 article. 



7 Unfortunately, in the pathological department, which took up this 

 phase of the work, this observation completely escaped notice. 



