ACCESSORY FOOD-FACTORS 55 



eighteenth century, but information obtained from 

 Messrs. Rose goes to show that neither lime-juice 

 nor lime fruit was imported into this country till 1859. 

 Prior to that date lime fruit and juice were certainly 

 picked up by ships cruising in the West Indies, but 

 in the majority of cases it would seem that the term 

 "lime" was used indifferently for limes and lemons, 

 and it may be the lemon which won the reputation 

 in scurvy. The history of the use of lime-juice and 

 lemon-juice in the navy is under investigation at the 

 present time by Mrs. Henderson Smith. 



A reliance on lime-juice in such a campaign as the 

 Kut campaign would land an army in a very bad 

 position, and it is apparent that the problem of such 

 a campaign is a very difficult one. For, to sum it 

 up briefly: 



1. The anti-scorbutic vitamine does not survive 



long except in living tissues. 



2. The only living tissues which can be easily 



got up long lines of communication to 

 advanced posts are animals which can be 

 made to walk there. 



3. But many native Indians will not eat animals. 



There is, however, a possible solution in the dis- 

 covery made by Dr. Fiirst, a colleague of Professor 

 Hoist's, that the anti-scorbutic vitamine develops in 

 seeds immediately on germination. We have ger- 

 minated the dhal of the Indian soldier's ration, and 

 find that its value after twenty-four hours' soaking and 

 twenty-four hours' germination is as good as that of 

 many fresh vegetables. Here, therefore, we have 

 ready to hand a means of meeting the difficulty. The 

 germination on a large scale needs a little care, for 

 if the seeds are too moist or in too thick layers they 

 will ferment instead of germinating. 



