VITAMINES 229 



substances, one of which is possibly allantoin or a simple 

 derivative of it. It has been found that certain pyrimidine 

 compounds have also a small curative effect when administered 

 to birds with polyneuritic symptoms and possibly a similar 

 nucleus is contained in the vitamine. 



These experiments, striking as they are, may yet receive 

 a different interpretation to that put forward by Casimir Funk. 

 The alternative view was suggested originally by Eykman, who 

 regarded the ill effects observable after feeding with polished 

 rice as due to a toxin contained in the grain whose action is 

 normally neutralised by a corresponding anti-toxin contained 

 in the husk. The curative power of the husk is, from this point 

 of view, due to the anti-toxin contained in it, which removes the 

 toxic condition brought about previously by the administration 

 of the polished rice. Some have ascribed the toxic action to the 

 presence of microbes and others to faulty processes occurring in 

 the grain; and a considerable amount of work has been done 

 with the object of deciding between these contending views. 



Most of the known facts, however, are as much in favour ot 

 the one as of the other theory. It has been remarked, for 

 instance, that an infant whose mother is only taking polished rice 

 may get beri-beri before the mother shows any signs of the 

 disease. If the diet of the mother remain unaltered the infant 

 will probably die, but it will recover if it be fed on other milk 

 — cow's or even condensed milk. Further, if given an extract of 

 rice bran, its recovery is prompt, although it continues to be 

 nursed by its mother. The restoration to health can, of course, 

 be explained on the ground that the deficient vitamine has been 

 supplied, or equally on the ground that the anti-toxin given in 

 the milk has overcome the induced toxic condition of the child. 



A strong point in favour of the toxin theory was advanced 

 by Abderhalden and Lampe, who found that boiling the rice 

 — and thereby presumably weakening or killing the toxin — 

 diminished its power to produce polyneuritis, although it did 

 not prevent it altogether. But Funk argues that the more rapid 

 the assimilation of vitamine-free food, the more quickly would 

 one expect the store of vitamines in the body to become 

 exhausted. Now pigeons are unused to boiled food, and Funk 

 supposes that therefore it is not so easily assimilated as the 

 uncooked rice. Under these circumstances, less vitamine is 

 used up on feeding with the boiled rice and consequently we 

 16 



