308 



Vitamines. 



In the planting of food crops and the preparation of a diet 

 for the labour staflF it is impressed on one that it is essential food 

 containing vitamines be allowed. Tliis is a comparatively new 

 term in modern parlance and the following extracts may l)e of as- 

 sistance to those concerned with these qaiestions. T'he Chemist 

 and Druggist February ]4th 1930 in the course of an article states, 

 " As is well known, the knowledge of the presence and importance 

 of vitamines is comparatively ne^v, and as yet nothing is known 

 as to the chemical nature of vitamines. But of their importance 

 in nutrition there is no doul)t, although, strictly speaking, tliey are 

 not nutritive in the same sense as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. 

 It has been estaiblished that tlie dietetic deficiencies which are the 

 cause of beri-l)eri. scurvy, rickets, and pellagra are due to the ab- 

 sence or want of balance in the proportions of vitamines that should 

 form part of the norma! diet. The report deals with a large num- 

 ber of experiments that have been made of feeding animals on 

 artificial diets •with and without vitamines, 



" The primary sources, however, are the green leaves of plants 

 and the embryos of certain seeds." 



The following is taken from Agricultural News, Feb. 'il, 1920, 



" In an interesting note in the Descriptive Catalogue of the 

 British Scientific Products Exhibition, 1919, several important 

 results of the (Lister) Institute's work are descriljed, 



" One of these is the manner in which scurvy was exterminated 

 among the Indian troops in Mesopotamia during the war. At the 

 beginning of the war those troops suffered very severely from 

 scurvy. This disease is caused by the want in food of certain sub- 

 stances called vitamines. Vitanxines occur only in the minutest 

 quantities, but if they are wanting in human food a variety of 

 diseases, according to which of the vitamines is deficient, result, 

 with prohably consequent death. 



" In Mesopotamia, on account of the difficulty of transport, 

 the Indian troo[)s were at first fed principally on dried grains and 

 pulses — good and concentrated foodstuffs, but wanting in one of the 

 essential vitamines. The result was an epidemic of scurvy, 



"The (iovernment fippealed to the Lister Institute for help, and 

 this was at once forthcoming, as the discovey had bwn made by 

 researches in the Institute that if a dry pea .is allowed to germinate, 

 large <|uantities of antis(orl)utic vitamines are at once formed. All 

 that was wanted was to damp the peas, and expose them to the 

 warm Mesopotamia air for a few hours when they sprouted, and 

 formed the necessary vitamines. This sprouting did not interfere 

 in any way with the cooking of the peas, and, yet, when treated in 

 this simple way, they became a perfectly wholesome food, and the 

 scu rvy d i sa ppeared . ' ' 



T. F. C. 



