THE ANTIBERIBERI VITAMINE 213 



In the first experiment he fed 11 chickens, varying in weight between 1800 

 and 3800 grams on rice, which they ate voluntarily; the uneaten rice was 

 weighed the next day. No relationship was evident between the appearance 

 of beriberi and the amount of rice utilized. Since the birds varied consid- 

 erably in age and vitality, so that the energy expended and required were 

 different, and since this experiment was carried out on two series of experi- 

 mental animals, in two different months, with a possibility of the dissimi- 

 larity of the external temperature, therefore this experiment is not quite 

 significant. In a second experiment, Vedder fed forcibly 100, 50, and 25 

 grams of white rice daily to chickens averaging 1200 grams in weight. Vedder 

 then stated that the pigeons could die as well from over-feeding as from under- 

 feeding, because rice, collecting in the crop, mechanically caused disturbances 

 not related to the stimulation of metabolism. If we assume, with Vedder, 

 that chickens fed 100 gm. of rice really die as a result of over-feeding, and 

 only consider the birds receiving less rice, then chickens on 50 grams of rice 

 developed beriberi in 20 days and those on 25 grams of rice, much later, which 

 naturally completely corroborates the results of other investigators. In a 

 third experiment, unpolished rice was used, but in this case, the animals did 

 not die as a result of over-feeding, although they were given 50 and 75 grams 

 of rice daily. In a fourth experiment, chickens were fed on sterilized meat 

 and eggs, and the results show definitely, that eggs contain some vitamine 

 while meat contains a greater quantity. Vedder believed that if beriberi 

 could occur in the absence of carbohydrates, then it was certain that vitamine 

 B played no part in the metabolism of this dietary component. We have 

 already seen that this conclusion is, in all probability, incorrect. If these 

 foods were vitamine-free, the retardation of the beriberi symptoms would be 

 the best demonstration for the correctness of our observations. In the fifth 

 and last experiment, chickens were fed on sterilized eggs and meat, with the 

 addition of white rice. The eggs, apparently egg-white and egg-yolk, were 

 evidently not entirely vitamine-free, and the residual vitamine might perhaps 

 suffice for 25 grams of rice. The eggs and meat used here, according to Vedder's 

 statements, were supposed to be identical with the preparations used in the 

 fourth experiment. This is very unlikely, since the chickens, in the fourth 

 experiment, developed beriberi in 61 days, when fed on 50 grams of eggs, 

 while in the fifth experiment, the animals developed no beriberi symptoms 

 on an addition of 25 grams of eggs. As we see from the above, Vedder's objec- 

 tions do not carry any weight. Aside from this, upon examining our pigeon 

 experiments more closely and disregarding those fed on larger quantities of 

 rice, the results on lesser quantities of rice still prove our contention. The 

 amount of food was kept constant (12.5 grams daily) in another experiment, 

 where a synthetic diet was used which confirmed our rice results, so that the 

 food only varied qualitatively but not quantitatively. 



The chief difficulty encountered in this experiment was that the 

 amount of vitamine needed for metabolism depends not on the 

 ingested quantity of food, but on the portion assimilated. This con- 



