442 



MAMMALIA— PHYSIOLOGY 



is completely recoverable from the unsaponifiable fraction of oils 

 and fats that contain it, the writer is convinced as a result of experi- 

 mentation that there are really two factors in Vitamin A, one which 

 aids in curing or preventing the keratinizations characteristic of 

 Vitamin A deficient animals and drawing on the stored up fats of the 

 animal body, while the other, a factor belonging to the unsaturated 

 hydrocarbons and fats, is the growth factor. 



It may be significant that carotin (C40H56) is an unsaturated 

 hydrocarbon, and that it is transformed by the rat into Vitamin A, 



when furnished in arachis oil, 



itself unsaturated. In those 

 cases where carotin and even 

 chlorophyll have been able to 

 induce growth in Vitamin A 

 deficient rats, it is worth men- 

 tioning that the experiments 

 were not run long enough to 

 determine the point where the 

 vitamin substitute ceased draw- 

 ing upon the stored up foods of 

 Fig. 1±iB. Pieeon with polyneuritis , • i> 1 j ^r^i 



r„ . J- . J c • . • \j-i ■ v> the animals own body, ine 



lollowing a diet dencient in Vitamin a. ■' 



(Courtesy of Eli Lilly & Co.) writer holds that the complete 



Vitamin A contains both the 

 catalyzers and the growth factor, and includes iodin, (ferrous) iron, 

 and unsaturated as well as saturated fats. 



Vitamin B is found in the heart and kidneys of animals. It is 

 not found in the meat of chickens, turkeys, ducks and guinea fowls. 

 It is most abundantly distributed in roots and tubers and all green 

 plant tissues. Cereals and the germs of seeds, yeast and wheat 

 germ contain it. In man the disease known as beri-beri, with a 

 failure of some nerves to function, and a disturbance of the appetite 

 and digestive processes, results from eating polished rice. There is a 

 resultant atrophy of the lymphoid tissue, and an hypertrophy of the 

 pancreas, Spleen and certain other glands of the body. In birds a 

 disease called polyneuritis is caused by similar lack of the seed coat 

 in food. Vitamin B is soluble in water and alcohol. It is destroyed 

 by high temperature (130° C). 



There has been so much confusion over the terminology con- 

 nected with the factors contained in Vitamin B that a Committee on 

 Vitamin B Nomenclature has recommended (Science, vol. 69, p. 276, 



