320 



Vitamines and Deficiency Diseases [June-September 



have observed beriberi in starving fowls. On the contrary, it seems 

 certain that if no food is metabolized beriberi does not occur. The 

 results with other quantities of raw rice are recorded below : 



These results made it necessary to ascertain which of the regulär 

 food-constituents possesses this quickening action on the onset of 

 beriberi. This problem could be solved by varying the amounts of 

 the different constituents in an artificial diet. Four such diets were 

 prepared. The composition of the diet, and the results of the feed- 

 ing tests, are recorded below : 



From the results of this experiment the conclusion is justified that 

 the metabolism of carbohydrates, starch particularly, requires and 

 uses up the larges.t amount of available vitamine. 



To complete these findings Funk and v. Schönborn (37) studied 

 the influence of the f oregoing diets, with ref erence to the content of 

 glycogen in the liver and of sugar in the blood. We aimed to deter- 

 mine in which stage of carbohydrate metabolism vitamines play an 

 active röle. The results so far obtained are not very clear, but they 

 suggest that vitamine is involved in the synthesis of glycogen in the 

 liver. We obtained the following results for pigeons. 



Normal diet: Glycogen (liver), 1.17%; sugar (blood), 0.1%. 



Füll artificial diet (percent — casein 12, starch 28, fat 28, sugar 

 28, salts 4) : Glycogen, 0.48% ; sugar, 0.15%. 



Carbohydrate-free diet (percent — casein 12, fat 42, salts 4, made 

 up to 100 with french chalk) : Glycogen, 0.33% ; sugar, 0.21%. 



Starch-free diet (percent — casein 12, sugar 42, fat 42, salts 4) : 

 Glycogen, 0.68%; sugar, 0.21%. 



Fat-free diet (percent — casein 12, sugar 42, starch 42, salts 4) : 

 Glycogen, 4.3% ; sugar, 0.15%. 



