VITAMIN G {Bo) 119 



ment by Goldberger and Tanner (1925) that, "in the prevention (and 

 presumably causation) of pellagra there is concerned a heretofore 

 unrecognized or unappreciated dietary factor, which we designate as 

 factor P-P. This may be effective with but little, possibly without any, 

 cooperation from the protein factor. Factor P-P may possibly play 

 the sole essential role in the prevention (and causation) of pellagra. 

 Factor P-P is present in brewers' yeast, in milk, and (on the basis of 

 our experience with fresh meat) in lean beef; it is very low or lacking 

 in dry soy beans, dry cowpeas, butter, cod-liver oil, and canned 

 tomatoes." 



The use of yeast in the treatment of pellagra was suggested by the 

 favorable results which Goldberger and Wheeler had obtained with it 

 in experimental black tongue of dogs, a disease which Chittenden and 

 Underbill (1917) had shown to be very similar to, if not identical 

 with, human pellagra and which Goldberger and Wheeler had produced 

 in dogs by diets similar to those associated with the occurrence of 

 pellagra. In their study of black tongue, white and yellow corn meal, 

 casein, cod-liver oil, and butter had appeared to be very deficient or 

 lacking in the black tongue preventive factor, milk to have slight but 

 inferior preventive properties, and fresh lean beef and yeast to be very 

 active, as was also Seidell's activated fuller's earth and autoclaved yeast. 

 From the similarity in behavior of these substances in pellagra and 

 black tongue, Goldberger and his associates were of the opinion that 

 one and the same factor is responsible for the prevention of both these 

 diseases. 



After confirming the pellagra-preventing properties of beef and of 

 fresh and autoclaved yeast in experiments upon human pellagra, Gold- 

 berger, Wheeler, Lillie and Rogers (1926) conducted a series of feed- 

 ing experiments on young rats on a vitamin-B-free diet with various 

 supplements with the following results: When 30 or 40 per cent of 

 autoclaved yeast, believed to contain the pellagra-preventing vitamin 

 but not the antineuritic, was fed to young rats on a diet free from 

 water-soluble, growth-promoting vitamins, there was a short initial 

 gain in weight, followed by rapid decline and death, with or with- 

 out symptoms of polyneuritis. With a supplement of an alcoholic 

 extract of corn meal (equivalent to 40 per cent of corn in the diet), 

 capable of curing polyneuritis, there was again a brief gain in weight, 

 followed by a rapid decline. When, however, a combination of as small 

 an amount as 8 or 10 per cent of the autoclaved yeast and alcoholic 

 extract of corn meal (equivalent to 5 per cent of corn in the diet) was 

 fed, the rats grew normally. With 20 per cent of dried fresh lean beef, 



