584 voegtlin: kole of vitamines in nutrition 



neuritic vitamine from dried ox brain. A little later Dr. Towles 

 and myself were able to demonstrate the presence of this sub- 

 stance in crude extracts from the spinal cord which was free from 

 blood and other contaminations and, therefore, represented, to a 

 large extent, nerve cells and nerve fibers. From this it would 

 appear that the antineuritic substance under normal conditions 

 forms an essential part of the nerve cell and fiber and that its 

 presence in nervous tissue in sufficient amounts is essential for 

 the proper function of this organ. When the vitamine content 

 of the nervous tissue is no longer replaced by an adequate supply 

 in the diet, degeneration of the nervous tissue begins. In this 

 connection I also call attention to the fact that lipoids and 

 antineuritic vitamine seem to be distributed in the body in 

 similar proportions. This may be due to the lipoid solubility 

 of the antineuritic vitamine. Another point of importance is 

 that the animal body has the capacity of holding on to its vi- 

 tamines. If we change the diet of man from one sufficient in 

 vitamines to one deficient or free of vitamine, we find that as a 

 rule it takes several weeks and even months before obvious and 

 well defined symptoms of deficiency diseases appear. One might 

 ask why the body does not react more rapidly to a deficient diet. 

 Apparently the initial vitamine content of the body, which in 

 absolute terms probably amounts to only a few grams in a 

 person weighing 100 pounds, is not easily used up or eliminated 

 together with the excretions. The katabolism of vitamines, if 

 there is such a thing, must be extremely slow. If my statement 

 that vitamines may occur in the colloidal state be correct, and 

 we have seen that a number of facts seem to prove this assump- 

 tion, it is very likely that certain other body colloids may fix 

 the vitamines in the tissue fluids by means of adsorption. Traube 

 has shown that certain alkaloids with very powerful and pro- 

 longed physiological action occur in the form of colloids. The 

 fact that these substances are colloidal may be one of the reasons 

 for their powerful physiological activity, especially as the recent 

 teachings of biochemistry seem to support the view that life 

 itself is largely dependent on the colloidal state of living matter. 

 Before closing the chapter of the physiological action of vi- 



