246 THE VITAMINES 



and maize occurs chiefly in the germ, as well as in the pericarp; 

 in this they adopted the view of Chick and Hume at first. Later how- 

 ever, Voegtlin and Myers (I.e. 271) showed that when wheat or corn 

 kernels (see fig. 53-54) are cut into two portions, and the part without 

 the germ fed to animals, results are obtained which indicate an 

 absolute lack of vitamine B; therefore, the vitamine must be in the 

 germ only. However, it must not be forgotten that by the procedure 

 followed by Voegtlin and Myers, other constituents are removed (for 

 example, protein), and that possibly the vitamine is also present in 

 the remaining part of the grain in sub-optimal amounts. Funk and 

 Dubin (I.e. 493), showed that the substance promoting the growth 

 of yeast was found in the germ, but it was likewise present outside 

 of the germ in appreciable quantities. For practical purposes, 

 according to Greig and Curjel (691), it seems sufficient when wheat 

 germ is added to zwieback to the extent of 15 per cent. This measure 

 was adopted for the English colonial army in order to protect the 

 personnel against beriberi. 



When cereal flours are heated in baking, the vitamine B content is 

 altered. Weill and Mouriquand (692) heated decorticated barley to 

 120C. for 1| hours. When this was fed to pigeons, they died after 

 30 days with definite beriberi symptoms. On white rice, this disease 

 appears in 18 to 25 days and on sterilized rice, in 9 to 16 days. They 

 believed, therefore, that decorticated grain kernels still contained 

 vitamine, especially since the symptoms appeared sooner when the 

 food was sterilized. Chick and Hume (I.e. 645) heated wheat germs 

 to high temperatures, whereupon they observed inactivation at 

 120C., but not on heating at 100C. for 2 hours. From these results, 

 they believed that baking does not affect vitamine B to any great 

 extent. If yeast is used in the dough, then a part of the B vitamine 

 of the bread may arise from this source. 



We have frequently touched upon the point that seeds develop 

 vitamine C upon germination. This fact, first observed by Furst, 

 was further developed for practical purposes by Chick and Delf 

 (693), and in addition to cereals, was confirmed in peas and beans. 

 Weill and Mouriquand (694) conducted similar experiments with 

 germinating barley and later they showed, in conjunction with 

 Pdrronet (695), that vitamine C develops in greater amounts only in 

 the later stages of the germination. 



