VITAMIN B (Bi) 85 



Qualitative Reactions to Different Degrees of Deficiency of Vita- 

 min B. — A pronounced deficiency of vitamin B is followed by failure 

 of appetite, decreased food consumption, and finally starvation, result- 

 ing in gastric and intestinal atony, fall of body temperature and death. 

 Both Sandels (1928) and Chase (1928) found that on a diet adequate 

 in other respects but free from vitamin B, young albino rats usually 

 die before showing definite symptoms of pol)meuritis. When measurable 

 but insufficient amounts of vitamin B are fed, the animals make larger 

 gains, but finally suffer a sharp loss in weight, develop the classical 

 s>Tnptoms of polyneuritis and die. usually within a few days there- 

 after. When sufficient vitamin B is fed to allow net maintenance of 

 weight during the experimental period many of the animals develop a 

 chronic type of polyneuritis, in which condition they may survive for 

 several weeks. This state is characterized by a moderate head retraction, 

 a spastic gait, a highly excitable nervous condition, and upon handling, 

 a temporary paralysis in the animal. McCarrison (1928a) pointed out 

 that whereas typical avian polyneuritis is produced by entire absence 

 of the antineuritic vitamin, a condition resembling human beriberi is 

 produced in pigeons by an unfavorable proportion but not absolute 

 deficiency of the vitamin. 



In young rats receiving a basal diet adequate so far as known 

 except for vitamin B, growth is proportional to the added vitamin B 

 between levels large enough to prevent polyneuritis and small enough 

 to prevent normal growth. The deficiency of vitamin B tending to 

 retard gain in weight, produces a lesser retardation in length than in 

 weight, and smaller chests in proportion to body weight than is found 

 in normal rats (Quinn, King and Dimit, 1929). 



A serious deficiency of vitamin B in human nutrition will lead to 

 beriberi, or under less drastic conditions, to failure of appetite, possibly 

 minor digestive disturbance, and loss of stamina. Many Japanese phy- 

 sicians hold that in actual clinical beriberi an infection is usually in- 

 volved. 



Distribution of Vitamin B in the Body and in Food Materials 



Until recently the reported occurrence of vitamin B was based on 

 either pigeon- or rat-feeding experiments. Some of the earlier work 

 can now be reinterpreted in terms of vitamins B and G, but since it is 

 both and not either one alone which is essential to mammalian nutrition, 

 too elaborate an attempt at such reinterpretation might be premature. 



Distribution in the Body. — Cooper (1914b) recorded in terms of 

 the natural food material and dry weight, respectively, the following 



