Individuals taken from stock of healthy animals 



Supplied with "pure nutrients" lacking vitamin C 



lost 142 grams in five weeks 



Continued on "normal" diet 



gained 150 grams in five weeks 



Individuals taken from cages of scurvy animals 



Supplied with "protective" food 



gained 75 grams in six weeks 



Continued on "deficient" diet 



lost 103 grams, died in six weeks 



SCURVY IN GUINEA-PIGS RELATED TO DIET 



When guinea-pigs or humans or monkeys are supplied diets deficient in vitamin C, 

 they develop swollen joints. Their gums become tender and bleed easily. Hemor- 

 rhages occur readily, for the v/alls of the capillaries deteriorate. The flesh becomes 

 sore and blackened when bruised. (The two animals representing each experiment 

 were litter mates) 



health improved immediately and decidedly. Yet neither Takaki nor any- 

 one else knew just what the connection was between the new diet and the 

 prevention of beriberi. The diet specialists thought it was the additional 

 protein in proportion to the carbohydrates. 



Toward the end of the century, however, a Dutch physician in Java, 

 Christian Eijkman (1858-1930), attacked beriberi experimentally. He fed 

 pigeons and chickens on "polished" rice — that is, rice from which the hulls 

 had been rubbed off. The birds developed the symptoms of the nerve in- 

 flammations typical of beriberi. Did anything in the white rice injure the 

 birds? Eijkman fed the sick birds rice "polishings", or the removed bran, 

 and restored them to health. The condition was apparently due to the lac\ 



106 



