THE ANTIRACHITIC VITAMINS 227 



fatty acids. For this purpose, one series of animals were fed with 

 fat, another with fatty acids. When vitamine A was absent from 

 the diet, the fatty acid mixture was well assimilated, and the animals 

 showed a normal fat content. In our experiments, together with 

 Dubin (I.e. 331), we fed rats on a diet containing a large amount of 

 neutral fat. These rats, in spite of the administration of vitamine 

 B, ceased growing and lost markedly in body weight. We tried to 

 improve the condition of the animals by adding greater amounts of 

 vitamine A in the form of cod liver oil or butter, but without success. 

 Unlike vitamine B, vitamine A, given parenterally, is without any 

 action. 



The role of vitamine A in pathology was treated by Mendel (607) . 

 It was particularly noted that this substance was of less importance 

 for adults than for young growing animals. It was also shown to 

 be of significance in the manifestation of ophthalmia, as well as 

 in the occurrence of urinary calculi, conditions which arise chiefly 

 when vitamine A is absent from the diet. McCarrison (608) holds 

 that vitamine A plays a part in the prophylaxis of edema. All of 

 these statements will be discussed in relation to each other in another 

 chapter. 



