3IÖ Vitamines and Deficiency Diseases [June-September 



holic extract, but to 34 percent. This was a more compllcated mix- 

 ture. I then took advantage of an Observation which was made in 

 collaboration with Mr. Drummond. We prepared a series of phos- 

 photungstates f rom several natural, chemically pure, bases : cholin, 

 betain, nicotinic acid, stachydrin, guanin, adenin, guanidin and 

 Creatinin. The solubility of these phosphotungstates, estimated in 

 mixtures of acetone and water of various concentrations, differed 

 considerably, indicating that the method may be of use for their 

 Separation. Solubility did not increase, however, as one would 

 expect, with increase in the proportion of acetone, but increased 

 in the direction of the arrows in the f ollowing sequence : 



25% -» 100% -> 50% -^ 75 %. 



By applying these findings to the fractionation of autolyzed yeast, 

 i. e., by treating the phosphotungstates obtained with the successive 

 concentrations of acetone mentioned above, the f ollowing percentage 

 results were obtained, expressed in terms of the total precipitate : 



Percentage of acetone as solvent .. ..25 100 50 75 Residue 



Percentage of dissolved matter 46.4 16.8 13.7 9.6 13.3 



We see, then, that by applying this modified acetone-method to 

 autolyzed yeast, the residue is only slightly greater than that for 

 the alcohol-method. The results so f ar obtained indicate that most of 

 the Vitamine, even in the case of autolyzed yeast, is contained in the 

 insoluble residue. The results are very promising since, even in the 

 case of autolyzed yeast; 86.7 percent of the impurities can be re- 

 moved in a single Operation, altho the Separation does not seem to 

 be as complete as it is in the case of alcoholic extract. 



Physiology of vitamines. Relationship of vitamines to 

 LIPOIDS. One of the chief promoters of the idea that lipoids are 

 indispensable for life was Stepp. This is a misconception based on 

 the Observation that food extracted with alcohol is rendered inade- 

 quate for life. Although the Observation was quite correct in itself, 

 the mistake in the conclusion was due to the fact that, at that time, 

 everything soluble in so-called lipoidal solvents was assumed to be 

 lipoid. It has been very difficult to overcome the influence of this 

 generally accepted though erroneous idea. Lately, however. Stepp 



