C. A. ELVEHJEM 



suffering. When liver was given to relieve night blindness and fresh 

 vegetables were used to cure scurvy, the practitioner knew nothing 

 about vitamins — he was interested in healing the patient. Eijkman, 

 I am sure, carried a mental picture of the severe cases of beriberi which 

 he encountered in Java during all his attempts to relate this disease to a 

 specific essential nutrient. R. R. Williams referred to his early con- 

 tact with the disease in his Willard Gibbs award address as follows: 

 "In short, beri-beri was a principal topic of conversation in scientific 

 and medical circles in Manila during those early years of my enlistment 

 with Vedder in the Philippines." When Goldberger was called upon 

 in 1914 to undertake studies on the cause of pellagra, he knew very 

 little about the disease, but on December 13, 1915, he wrote as follows 

 to Dr. Milton Rosenau: "I can hardly describe the feeling that I 

 experience as I go through our wards at the asylum and see the poor 

 insane women who a year ago had pellagra but who this year are per- 

 fectly well — so far as pellagra is concerned." 



Regardless of the satisfaction experienced by the individual 

 workers, these phenomenal results did not captivate the interest of 

 administrators of research funds. More support was given for studies 

 on animal nutrition, since a premium was placed on production. Few 

 recognized that the development of strong human bodies would also 

 pay dividends. Perhaps we can now explain this difference in reaction. 

 The animal husbandrymen took great interest in judging and selecting 

 fine stock. If better nutrition produced better stock they were inter- 

 ested. On the other hand, medical students have always been given 

 sick people to study rather than the ultrahealthy. For example, Sir 

 Robert McCarrison of England went to India to study disease but his 

 most important contributions originated because he was impressed by 

 the perfect physique of the Hunza race. At present many are interested 

 in expanding our conception of the relation of nutrition to optimum 

 health, but we still are not too certain about the procedure; some talk 

 about extra quantities of vitamins, others advocate physical training. 



It was not surprising, therefore, that between 1910 and 1920 

 the following laboratory findings continued to attract widespread 

 interest. (1) Calves maintained on diets balanced according to the 

 recognized standards failed to grow on rations made entirely from 

 products of the wheat plant but thrived on rations made from products 

 of the corn plant. (2) Rats placed on purified diets developed nor- 



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