INTRODUCTION 



mysterious factors responsible for curing deficiency diseases . He it was 

 who brought Eijkman's work to the notice of a larger scientific public 

 and who predicted the existence of other deficiency diseases. This 

 prediction was fulfilled within a few years, when Dr. J. Goldberger 

 proved, contrary to all previous opinion, that pellagra was a deficiency 

 disease. Goldberger was appointed in 1913 by the U.S. Bureau of 

 Public Health to investigate the outbreak of pellagra in the Southern 

 States of the U.S.A. He was struck by the fact that nurses and 

 doctors attending pellagra patients in an asylum never contracted the 

 disease, and came to the conclusion that it was due to the particular 

 diet on which the patients, invariably poor, had to maintain them- 

 selves. He proved his point, first, by adding milk and eggs to an 

 orphanage diet and thereby eliminating pellagra from that particular 

 institution and, secondly, by giving them diets consisting solely of 

 deficient foods ; this diet was in fact similar to that eaten regularly 

 by thousands of poor farmers in the areas in which pellagra was 

 endemic. 



The years immediately following the work of these pioneers saw 

 few developments of scientific importance, although the empirical 

 knowledge gained as the result of their labours was used in various 

 parts of the world in the prevention and cure of both beriberi and 

 pellagra. In 1926, however, events began to move more rapidly, 

 and in that year pure crystalline aneurine was isolated. It was 

 synthesised ten years later by Prof. R. R. Williams of Columbia 

 University in collaboration with a group of chemists employed by 

 Merck & Co., Rahway. A year earlier, in 1935, riboflavin e had been 

 synthesised independently by Prof. R. Kuhn of the University of 

 Heidelberg and Prof. P. Karrer of the University of Zurich, and in 

 1937 nicotinic acid, known since 1867 as a chemical of no particular 

 importance, was recognised as the pellagra-preventive factor. Pyri- 

 doxin e was characterised as a vitamin in 1938 and in the following 

 year was synthesised independently by Prof. R. Kuhn and the Merck 

 workers who had already achieved fame in connection with the 

 synthesis of aneurine, and who were to enhance their reputation still 

 further by the successful synthesis of other vitamins. Shortly after- 

 wards, they collaborated with Prof. R. J. Williams, then of Oregon 

 State College and later of the University of Texas and brother of 

 Prof. R. R. Williams, in studying the constitution of pantothenic acid, 

 which they synthesised in 1940. This was followed by an investiga- 

 tion into the structure of biotin in collaboration with Prof. V. du 

 Vigneaud of Cornell University ; they synthesised biotin in 1943. 

 Another name associated with biotin is that of Prof. F. Kogl of the 

 University of Utrecht, who isolated it from egg-yolk in 1936, studied 

 its constitution under particularly difficult conditions during the 



