130 THE VITAMINES 



in this manner prevented the onset of scurvy. When milk was 

 omitted, lactose had not the least influence upon the progress of 

 the disease. Later, these observations were confirmed by many 

 others, and McCollum himself abandoned his view. 



When we (368) spoke with doubt as to the identity of scurvy in 

 guinea pigs and in man, it was based upon failure to obtain ther- 

 apeutic results with milk, lime juice, potato and lemon juice. All of 

 the difficulties mentioned by us at the time have been overcome by 

 countless investigators, and at present there is no reason to doubt 

 that in guinea pigs, we are actually dealing with scurvy. 



As we have already said, the vitamine requirements of the guinea 

 pig, aside from vitamine C, have been insufficiently investigated. 

 Hausermann (I.e. 13) extended his experiments on the influence of 

 iron salts on guinea pigs, without noting any results. Heim (369) 

 found that guinea pigs could not live on raw or cooked cow's milk. 

 Of eight animals, one died after a month, two after 2 months, and the 

 other five remained alive for 3 months (the whole experimental 

 period), but showed loss of weight. In another series of experiments, 

 the animals died in from 4 to 14 days; the addition of cellulose was 

 without effect, while malt extract and alcoholic extract of germinated 

 barley exerted a definite favorable influence. Rondoni andMontag- 

 nani (370) conducted similar experiments with corn and oats, and 

 with complete starvation. Guinea pigs on corn showed milder 

 scurvy symptoms than those on oats. Of particular interest, is the 

 work of Ingier (371) who investigated the influence of diet on 

 pregnant guinea pigs. Here, too, a diet of oats and water showed 

 scorbutic influence on the embryo. When this diet was used in the 

 later stages of pregnancy, no pathological changes were found in the 

 bones. A short feeding with the milk of the scorbutic mother, con- 

 verted the latent scurvy into the active form. In pregnant animals, 

 the disease developed more rapidly, with more marked symptoms, 

 ihan in those that were not pregnant, and in the first stages of preg- 

 nancy lead to death. Ingier described a fatty degeneration of the 

 nerves in these guinea pigs. 



Conditions for the demonstration of experimental scurvy. The 

 foodstuff mostly used for the development of this disease is oats. 

 According to the investigations of McCollum, Simmonds and Pitz 

 (372), oats are poor in adequate protein, salts and vitamine A. It is 

 undoubtedly true that under the working conditions maintained by 



