RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 29 



It yields a hydrazone which by heating with sodium ethoxide 

 in a sealed tube at 156-170 is converted into racemic coniine. 

 Methyl t'so-pelletierine, on the other hand, has the formula : 



CH 2 \ prj _mti /CH . COCH 2 . CH 3 



and is therefore a methyl derivative of an unknown iso- 

 pelletierine. 



According to McCollum and Davis (/. Biol. Chem. 191 5, 23, 

 181-252), two accessory factors — a fat soluble A and water 

 soluble B — are indispensable in the diet if growth is to occur. 

 Later McCollum and Kennedy (/. Biol. Chem. 191 6, 24, 491) 

 showed that polyneuritis set up in birds fed exclusively on 

 polished rice or purified food stuffs was due to a deficiency of 

 the water soluble B. This substance is also the vitamine which 

 promotes the growth of young animals. Osborne and Mendel 

 (/. Biol. Chem. 191 7, 31, 149) have now shown that this same 

 water soluble vitamine is also contained in yeast, since the 

 addition of an aqueous extract of this substance to a diet of 

 purified caseinogen, starch, lard, butter, fat, and artificial protein 

 free milk greatly increases its power to produce growth in rats. 

 Further, rats growing on a diet containing yeast and caseinogen 

 cease to thrive immediately the yeast is withdrawn. More 

 recently McCollum and Pitz (/. Biol. Chem. 191 8, 31, 229) have 

 found that guinea-pigs, fed on a diet which was sufficient to 

 maintain rats in good condition, acquired scurvy. The addition 

 to the diet of substances such as sodium benzoate or citric acid 

 which depress the growth of micro-organisms in the intestine 

 or of laxatives prevented the development of scurvy. Further, 

 animals in which the scorbutic condition had been allowed to 

 become acute were relieved by the addition of these substances 

 to their food. The scurvy in these cases is not attributed to 

 the absence of an anti-scorbutic vitamine, but to a retention 

 of faeces in the caecum owing to the unfavourable physical 

 character of the diet, and the consequent harmful effect of the 

 poisonous putrefaction products of bacterial origin. 



In a paper dealing with the Power of Perfumes, Backman 

 (/. Physiol. Path. gen. 191 7, 17, i.) puts forward the view that 

 a substance in order to be perceptible to the smell must be 

 soluble both in water and in lipoids, since the receptor organs 

 are covered with a watery fluid while the cells themselves 



