I9I5] Casimir Funk 3^9 



By using casein extracted with hot alcohol, the animals developed 

 beriberi in 26 days, and died in 28 days; much earlier than with 

 unpurified casein. A very convenient technic was used for these 

 experiments. The diet was transformed by means of pill machines 

 into pills and aliquot parts of the initial mixture were forcibly fed. 

 RoLE OF viTAMiNES IN METABOLisM. An investigation was 

 suggested to me by the paper of Abderhalden and Lampe (2), who 

 found that pigeons, on boiled rice, develop beriberi later than those 

 on raw rice. This result was attributed by these authors to the 

 elimination from the rice of a poison during the process of cooking. 

 They doubted, for this reason, the existence of vitamines. For a 

 long time I could not make out where the mistake of Abderhalden 

 and Lampe's had occurred until I repeated their experiments (35). 

 The mistake was at once apparent and was a very simple one. To 

 each of two sets of pigeons I proposed to feed 30 gm. of either raw 

 or cooked rice, daily. But it was soon found impossible to feed 30 

 gm. of cooked rice, daily, because of its enormous bulk, the weight 

 of 30 gm. of rice after cooking being between 150 and 200 gm. 

 This preliminary result suggested that the results of Abderhalden 

 and Lampe were due to the use of unequal amounts of rice. The 

 original Statement of these authors was found to be correct: 



Cooked rice Raw rice 



Onset of beriberi Death Onset of beriberi Death 



44 days 44 days 25 days 26 days 



These figures represent average results. By giving to each pigeon 

 exactly 10 gm. of rice, cooked or raw, daily, the following results 

 were obtained : 



After it had been ascertained that the onset of Symptoms of 

 beriberi had some connection with the quantity of food consumed, 

 an experiment was performed with different amounts of raw rice. 

 The following results were obtained (36) : Pigeons were fed 0.5 gm., 

 5 gm., IG gm. or 20 gm., daily. The animals on 0.5 gm. a day died 

 with starvation-symptoms, a fact which does not agree with the State- 

 ment of Chamberlain, Bloombergh and Kilbourne, who claim to 



