proceedings: chemical society 483 



tive analysis that has its quantitative aspects also from the stand- 

 point of adequacy and limits of the separation process. 



The 250th meeting was held at the Cosmos Club, May 13, 1915. 

 Members of the American Chemical Society resident in Virginia with 

 the exception of Alexandria county have withdrawn, with the per- 

 mission of the council, from the Washington section, forming a Virginian 

 section with headquarters at Richmond. This withdrawal reduces the 

 membership of the local section from 371 to 318 members, of whom 

 14 reside in Maryland. 



Mr. R. R. Williams, of the Bureau of Chemistry, formerly of the 

 Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I., presented a paper entitled Vitmnines 

 and beriberi. The proof of the existence of substances now called 

 vitamines was an outgrowth of the study of beriberi. This is still a 

 disease of primary importance in Oriental countries, though the etiology 

 is now fairly established. Extensive studies and observations through- 

 out the world have shown that the beriberi is produced by the exclusive 

 consumption of a specifically deficient diet such as rice. The defici- 

 ency which produces the pathological condition is solely one of so 

 called vitamines. These are ashfree niti'ogenous substances which 

 occur in minute quantities in some foodstuffs and are absent in others. 

 Their existence and nature was first demonstrated by Funk in 1911, 

 who was able promptly to cure polyneuritis in fowls by administration 

 of relative minute amounts of a product separated from rice polishings 

 or yeast. As yet, however, no vitamine has been isolated in a pure con- 

 dition and we have little knowledge of their chemical nature. Twenty- 

 seven cases of human beriberi were treated with vitamine preparations 

 from rice polishings. The result of this treatment proved no less prompt 

 and radical in the case of human beriberi than it had already been shown 

 to be in polyneuritis gallinarum, thus demonstrating more conclusively 

 the essential identity of the two. A temperature reaction was observed 

 following the administration of vitamines to human patients. 



The suggestion was offered that beriberi is due to a metabolic tox- 

 aemia which is inhibited or corrected by administration of vitamines. 

 The chemical and pathological evidence in favor of this theory was 

 reviewed and some experimental evidence presented that polyneuritis 

 may be produced by the ingestion of the internal organs of birdg dying 

 from the disease resulting from white rice feeding. This view of the 

 function of the vitamines appears to account rationally for the observed 

 facts regarding beriberi. The conception of the vitamines as foods 

 necessary for tissue construction must be subjected to further critical 

 investigation (author's abstract). 



Discussion: Dr. Voegtlin in the discussion remarked that the 

 modern method of milling corn does not appear to account for pellagra. 

 A similar deficiency is however believed to be important in this disease 

 as well as beriberi. 



Dr. Salant said he had found carrot-fed rabbits more resistant to the 

 toxic effects of tartrates and certain heavy metals than were animals 

 fed on other diets, such as oats. E. C. McKelvy, Secretary. 



