VITAMIN B {Br) 71 



ingested bacteria and to systemic infection therefrom. That these 

 gastro-intestinal lesions are much more deep seated than those of the 

 nervous system is indicated from the observation that the nervous 

 symptoms present in avian polyneuritis may be rapidly ameliorated and 

 recovered from, and yet the bird dies in consequence of gastro-intestinal 

 lesions. In the nervous system the symptoms were considered to be 

 mainly the result of functional disorder, while in the intestines a 

 greater destruction of tissue cells takes place. 



Findlay (1921a) in a very carefully controlled comparative study 

 of starvation and beriberi in pigeons and fowls confirmed the work of 

 McCarrison to the extent that the histological changes in beriberi were 

 found to be similar in gross manifestations to those of starvation, in- 

 cluding hypertrophy of the adrenals, little or no change in the pituitary 

 gland, and atrophy of the other organs. Microscopical examination of 

 the tissues was considered to reveal evidence of nuclear degeneration 

 in line with McCarrison's theory of the relationship of vitamin B to 

 nuclear metaboHsm. 



These investigations indicate the profound effect which a quali- 

 tatively insufBcient diet lacking in vitamin B may have upon the bodily 

 functions. It should be emphasized, however, that in experiments in 

 which polished rice serves as the sole nutrient aside from the vitamin 

 containing substances, other nutritive deficiencies are involved which 

 may complicate the issue in so far as the physiological properties of 

 vitamin B are concerned. Some investigators, particularly Simonnet 

 (1920, 1921) and Randoin and Simonnet (1924), have used more com- 

 plete basal rations for pigeon experiments, but investigations conducted 

 with mammals, particularly those at Yale with dogs, on controlled 

 rations adequate except for vitamin B seem of greater import. It is 

 of interest that in many respects the more quantitative work upon other 

 species confirms the qualitative studies of McCarrison on pigeons. 



Relation to Appetite. — A conspicuous effect of lack of vitamin B is 

 the abrupt failure of appetite after a preliminary period, varying in 

 length with the age and species of animal. This loss of appetite had 

 been noted in the classical studies of Hopkins and others, leading up 

 to the discovery of the vitamins, but probably the earliest allusion to 

 it as a specific effect of lack of vitamin B was in the 1917 paper of 

 Osborne and Mendel in which, as noted previously, it was pointed out 

 that the stimulating effect of vitamin B on the appetite is not simply 

 a matter of improved palatability of the food mixture through its 

 presence. Improvement in appetite naturally leads to increase in food 

 consumption and in the young to growth, and the attribute "growth- 



