CHAPTER V 



VITAMINE CONTENT or VARIOUS FOODSTUFFS, IN THE NATURAL 

 AND PREPARED CONDITIONS 



We have already shown that during the last few years most food- 

 stuffs have been investigated for their nutritive value and vitamine 

 content. The results obtained give us an insight into the compara- 

 tive values of the above, and yet we must be careful in interpreting 

 the data. First of all, it should not be forgotten, as frequently 

 happens nowadays, that the results obtained with one animal species 

 cannot, ipso facto, be applied to others. 



For instance, it seems to us unjustifiable to determine the nutritive 

 value of an animal diet by using animals that normally live on plant 

 diet; this may be the cause of the wide differences between experi- 

 ments on man and those on animals. Variations in the antiscorbutic 

 value of meat in man and guinea pigs may be due to just such 

 procedures. 



Another difficulty in the interpretation of results is the lack of 

 quantitative methods for the estimation of the vitamine; this is most 

 apparent in the comparison of the results obtained at the outset of 

 vitamine research, with those of modern investigations carried out 

 with a better understanding of this new subject. Many of the older 

 results were obtained without paying any attention to quantitative 

 relationships, and Chick and Hume (640) correctly noted that in 

 this regard, we should be constrained to work quantitatively. For 

 example, if we would wish to study the effect of alkali on vitamines, it 

 does not suffice merely to add alkali to the foodstuff and feed it to 

 the animal. We must first determine the minimal protective dose of 

 the natural preparation, for if too great a dose is used from the start, 

 the preparation, in spite of an extensive destruction, may still contain 

 sufficient vitamine to act therapeutically, and we would make the 

 erroneous conclusion that the treatment to which the foodstuffs had 

 been subjected was without influence on the vitamine content. 



Most of the animal experiments conducted up to the present 

 suffered because of the fact that with the addition of vitamine in the 

 form of food, or in the form of extracts, the composition of the basal 

 diet was at the same time altered, without having the corresponding 



236 



