ANEURINE (thiamine) 



i8. Y. Sakurai, S. Omori and S. Huzita, Bull. Inst. Phys.-Chem. Res., 

 Japan, 1941, 20, 308 ; M. Swaminathan, Indian J. Med. Res., 

 1042, 30, 409. 



19. M. L. Fincke, R. Little, E. Redelings and J. Perkins, Food Res., 



1943, 8, 123. 



20. B. Barnes, D. K. Tressler and F. Fenton, ibid., 420. 



21. F. Fenton, B. Barnes, J. C. Moyer, K. A. Wheeler and D. K. 

 V Tressler, Amer. J. Publ. Health, 1943, 33, 799 ; F- Fenton, 



E. Gleim, M. Albury, J. R. McCartney and K. Visnyei, Food 

 Res., 1946, 11, 468 ; F. Fenton, E. Gleim, A. Arnason, J. F. 

 Thompson, M. Albury and M. Phillips, ihid., 475. 



22. E. Gleim, M. Albury, J. R. McCartney, K. Visnyei and F. Fenton, 



ihid., 461. 



23. E. Gleim, D. K. Tressler and F. Fenton, ibid., 1944, 9. 471. 



24. G. E. Rice, J. F. Benk, F. L. Kauffman, H. W. Schultz and H. E. 



Robinson, ihid., 491. 



II. EFFECT OF ANEURINE DEFICIENCY EN ANIMALS 

 Effect in Pigeons 



Incidental reference has already been made to some of the symptoms 

 associated with vitamin B^ deficiency in experimental animals. One 

 of the first recorded signs of vitamin B^ deficiency, actually used to 

 follow the isolation of the vitamin, was the characteristic head retrac- 

 tion of the pigeon, termed opisthotonus ; ^ this is a form of convulsion, 

 and is analogous to the convulsions produced in rats and other animals 

 by vitamin B^ deficiency. Vitamin B^-deficient pigeons also show 

 ataxia and leg weakness, cardiac failure with tachycardia, abnor- 

 malities of the electrocardiograph and necrosis of the heart muscle. 

 Starvation alone produces bradycardia and variable heart block. ^ In 

 most instances, the symptoms rapidly disappear on administration of 

 aneurine, unless the deficiency is severe ; recovery from leg weakness 

 is slow, however. R. L. Swank and O. A. Bessey ^ consider paralysis 

 to be a characteristic symptom of vitamin B^ deficiency, and maintain 

 that it is unnecessary to postulate the existence of vitamin B4 (see 

 page 612). Nerve degeneration is also characteristic of vitamin B^ 

 deficiency in pigeons, ^ and leads to mild myelin degeneration in the 

 peripheral nerves of the spinal cord, the extent of the degeneration 

 depending on the severity of the deficiency.* Incidentally, aneurine 

 can be detected in the myelin sheaths of peripheral nerves by fluores- 

 cence micro-spectrography.^ 



In vitamin Bj-deficient pigeons, alcohol disappears from the blood 

 at the same rate as in normal pigeons,^ whilst the onset of acute 

 vitamin B^ deficiency symptoms in pigeons is delayed by the substitu- 

 tion of alcohol for the fat and carbohydrate of the diet in isocaloric 



46 



