VITAMIN B (B,) 73 



on vitamin-free diets are complicated by many factors, especially the 

 intimate relation of water-soluble B vitamin to food intake, and also 

 the possible supplementing action of the protein in the crude vitamin 

 substance added," 



A further study along the same lines was reported by Cowgill 

 (1921b). Dried brewery yeast, neutralized tomato juice, and alcoholic 

 extracts of wheat embryo, of rice polishings, and of navy beans were 

 employed as sources of vitamin B. All these materials show pronounced 

 curative effects when fed to polyneuritic pigeons and all were found 

 capable of restoring the desire for food in a dog which had lost 

 appetite through being confined to a diet lacking vitamin B. Dogs on 

 diets adequate in other respects but lacking vitamin B usually show loss 

 of appetite in from five to fifteen days and thereafter eat very irregu- 

 larly if at all. If the dog continued to eat some food it eventually 

 showed symptoms of polyneuritis differing somewhat in appearance 

 from those exhibited by pigeons and fowls. Paralysis of the hind legs, 

 resulting first in a peculiar dragging of the feet and then in complete 

 loss of control of the hind limbs, was the most characteristic feature 

 in the dog. Often the first signs of paralysis were accompanied by 

 vomiting and a noticeably foul breath. Convulsions usually began not 

 long after the appearance of the paralysis. If, however, vitamin B in 

 any of the forms above mentioned was given after the paralysis had 

 appeared but before it was too late, the polyneuritis was cured by the 

 vitamin in these mammalian experiments, as in the earlier experiments 

 with pigeons and fowls. Figures 3 and 4 from photographs published 

 by Cowgill (1921b) show the same dog before and after treatment with 

 tomato juice. 



Cowgill agreed with Karr that the changes in body weight of the 

 animals follow the food intake, so that the loss of weight is not a 

 symptom characteristic of vitamin deficiency as against loss of appetite 

 from other causes, or simple starvation. 



Relation to Secretory Function. — The stimulating effect of vitamin 

 B on the appetite has led to many attempts to establish a relationship 

 between this vitamin and the secretory function of various glands. 

 Voegtlin and Myers (1919a) suggested the possible identity of vitamin 

 B with secretin, but the validity of the evidence upon which they based 

 their conclusions was questioned by Anrep and Drummond (1921), 

 Cowgill (1921), and Downs and Eddy (1921), who were unable to 

 substantiate their findings. Cowgill and Mendel (1921) reviewed criti- 

 cally much of the literature of the subject in introducing their own 

 investigation which consisted in testing the effects of preparations 



