Vol. XI. No. 256. 



TBE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



55 



THE NECESSITY FOR PHOSPHORUS 

 IN NUTRITION. 



The cause, or causes, of such diseases as bari-beii has been 

 uuder investigation for some time, and the results of observa- 

 tion tend in an increasing degree to show that they lie ia the 

 direction of faulty or insufBcient nutrition. In the Annah of 

 Trojiical Medicine and Puraiitolmjii for August 1. 1911, the 

 matter is given attention by G. C. E. Simi>soh, B.A., M.B., 

 B.Sc, and E. S. Edie, ^[.A.. B.Sc, from theylaboratories of 

 Tropical Medicine and of Bio-Chemistry, Liverpool University. 

 These investigators were asked recently by Professor Boss to 

 enquire into the relation of the organic pho.-^phorus content 

 of various diets to diseases of nutrition, partict^rly beri-beri. 

 Shortly after the work had commenced, Schaumann's mono- 

 graph on the subject appeared in the Archives for Ship and 

 Tropical Hygiene, and in this the subject was found to have 

 been dealt with so completely, that the writers of the article 

 from which this information is taken thought it only neces- 

 sary to confine their attention to confirming some of ihe newer 

 facts, and investigating further some of the matters arising 

 from Schaumann's results. The irapoitance of these has led 

 the writers to devote the greater part of their article to an 

 alistract of the more important sections of his monograph. 



Sehauraann commences with an historical review of the 

 previous theories of the cause of beri-beri, and of the work of 

 himself and others, which has shown that the disease is not 

 due to specific infection, contamination of food with poisonous 

 bodies, or to the production of such bodies in the food, and 

 the article quoted gives a short account of the work of the 

 various investigators. The matter of importance is that 

 Schaumann, and Eraser and Stanton, discovered independently 

 that the infiuence of food in producing lieri-beri in man, or 

 neuritis in fowls, increases with the decrease of the percentage 

 of phosphorus in the diet. It was thought by Schaumann 

 that the principle providing the phosphorus was nucleic acid, 

 but the work of Grijns did not confirm this supposition, 

 though a hot water extract of nuclein was found to cause 

 a slight postponement of death, in neuritic birds. 



This portion of Schaumann's work is followed by a con- 

 sideration of the theories attributing beri-beri Xn faulty nutri- 

 tion, and he points out that Xocht lays special stress on the 

 fact; ' it is not a question of defect of the main components 

 of food stutfs — proteid, carbohydrate and fat— but of some 

 subtle defect of the less known constituents, enzymes, com- 

 plements, compound proteids, etc. On Schaumann's part, 

 however, there is the tendency to consider the substance 

 or .substances of importance to be organic compounds 

 of phosphorus, and his work was outlined with the 

 object of considering other possible cause-s and of investi- 

 gating the infiuence of phosphorus compounds, both organic 

 and inorganic. His first results show that no part is played 

 by an e.vcess of oxalic acid or other poisonous products, or 

 by a deficiency in autolytic enzymes in the food, cither in 

 the production of beriberi or of polyneuritis in fowls, nor 

 that the fault in diet is concerned with either deficiency of 

 proteins or of inorganic salts. He draws attention to the 

 fact of the presence of phosphorus, in specially large amounts, 

 in the organs possessing the most complicated and important 

 functions: he adverts, further, to the circumstance that the 

 chief organic jihosphorus compounds are mostly assimilated by 

 the digestive system as such, without the previous formation 

 of phosphoric acid, and that man and the higher animal.-^ can 

 ■ Store any exce.ss of such compounds, to be drawn upon when 

 they are supplied insufliciently in the diet. 



These matters are important in the light of the 

 opinion of Albu and Neuberg that animal life is depend- 

 ent for the necessary phosphorus compounds, as for pro- 

 teids and carbohydrates, on the power of plants to build 

 up these substances from simpler bodies. The earlier 

 experiments of Schaumann were not strictly conclusive in 

 the matter of showing the necessity for the provision 

 of organically combined phosphorus in the diet. Further 

 trials with pigeons showed, however, that feeding with 

 polished rice or rice bread, which contain little phosphorus, 

 always caused the death of the birds. The condition was not 

 altered by the inclusion of such substances as dried egij-albu- 

 men, albumen metaphosphate, calcium glycero-pho.sphate, and 

 inorganic salts (with or without phosphates); these are accord- 

 ingly classed as non-protective substances. The meal or 

 bran from the outer parts of the rice grain, which is removed 

 in milling, had the effect of keeping the birds healthy when 

 it was added to the polished rice and rice meal; it is there- 

 fere called a protective substance. Other protective sub- 

 stances are wheat and bran, and dried brewer's }'east. It is 

 a fact of some interest that all these protective substances 

 contain similar amounts of phosphorus. Other trials were 

 made in order to discover what .substances could exert 

 a curative action; among these were yeast nuclein, dried 

 pressed yeast, the beans of Pliastolus radiatus, dry yellow 

 peas, and may organic extractives of plants containing phos- 

 phorus. 



As regards the beans men'ioned, a pepsin-hydro- 

 chk'iic acid extract of them was found by Schaumann to be 

 a powerful curative agent. It is suggested by this investi- 

 gator that the phosphatic bodies may serve as sources of 

 energy in the nervous system, so that the curative action 

 depends on their power to cause the central nervous system 

 to overcome the hindrance of the nerves that have degenerated 

 during the course of the disease. Researches were made 

 by Schaumann on other animals than pigeons, and short 

 accounts of these are given in the article from which this 

 information is taken. 



Among the conclusions reached are that; food stutt's 

 causing polyneuritis in animals are deficient in phosphorus or 

 in certain organic compounds of that element; certain sub- 

 stances can exert a curative action, while others can not; 

 some substances, rich in organic pho.sphorus, possess both 

 a protective and a curative effect; the influence shown by 

 organic phosphorus compounds prepared from the natural 

 protective substances is only moderate and transient; the 

 protective or curative effect shown is apparently due to the 

 collective action of several organic compounds of phosphorus, 

 rather than to any one; the changes undergone in the animal 

 system by phosphorus and nitrogen, in the food, are very 

 similar; polyneuritis in animals appears to be due to a lack 

 in the diet, of certain organic phosphorus compounds, whose 

 identity has yet to be established. 



The article which is being dealt with concludes with 

 interesting considerations regarding sailing ship beri-beri and 

 tropical beri-beri, both of which appear to be due to the 

 same causes as ordinary beri-beri, and a. review of the 

 researches of the writers states that the conclusions from 

 these, as far as they have extended, fully agree with those of 

 Schaumann. They include experiments that are of particular 

 interest at the present time, as showing that pigeons fed on 

 white meal bread succumbed to the diet, while those given 

 Standard or wholemeal bread continued to thrive. It is 

 the purpose of the writers to attempt to isolate the active 

 principle which appears to contain the phosphorus in a form 

 necessary to proper nutrition. ' 



