160 THE VITAMINS 



ness of the hypothesis that the rat produces vitamin C in metaboHsm 

 from some source not available to the guinea pig. 



Fowls and other members of the avian species resemble rats in 

 having little apparent need for vitamin C in their diet: Hart, Halpin, 

 and Steenbock (1922); Emmett and Peacock (1923); Mitchell, Ken- 

 dall, and Card (1923) ; Plimmer, Rosedale, and Raymond (1923) ; and 

 Suguira and Benedict (1923). Following the method first used by 

 Parsons, Carrick and Hauge (1925) and Hart, Steenbock, Lepkovsky 

 and Halpin (1925) demonstrated the presence of vitamin C in the livers 

 of chicks which had been fed for a long time on diets devoid of vita- 

 min C and concluded that the chick like the rat must produce the anti- 

 scorbutic substance in metabolism from sources not available to the 

 guinea pig. Hauge and Carrick (1926a) attempted to determine the 

 source of the supply by hatching chicks from eggs known to be lacking 

 in vitamin C and testing the livers and kidneys of the chicks for this 

 vitamin. Both the yolks and the whites of eggs laid by hens which had 

 been on an antiscorbutic ration proved to contain no demonstrable 

 amount of vitamin C but the livers and kidneys of five-weeks-old chicks 

 hatched from these eggs and fed scorbutic rations contained an abun- 

 dance ^f this vitamin. 



Thurston, Eckles and Palmer (1926) found that calves grew as 

 well on a ration extremely deficient in vitamin C as on the same ration 

 supplemented with tomato juice as a source of this vitamin and showed 

 no scorbutic symptoms on autopsy. Hughes, Aubel and Lienhardt 

 (1928) reported that absence of vitamin C in no way affected the 

 growth and reproduction of swine. 



Thurston, Palmer and Eckles in 1929 reported an extension of their 

 investigation of the role of vitamin C in the nutrition of calves. The 

 livers of two of the calves on the vitamin-C-free ration were found to 

 contain vitamin C as did also the milk from a heifer which had never 

 received any demonstrable amount of vitamin C. Attempts to trace the 

 synthesis of the vitamin were unsuccessful although negative results in 

 tests of the antiscorbutic value of the stomach contents and feces of 

 calves fed the scorbutic ration suggest that the synthesis occurs else- 

 where than in the digestive tract. Based upon the enlargement of the 

 adrenal glands in guinea pig scurvy, the possibility was suggested that 

 perhaps the adrenals of the bovine, rat, and chicken are capable of 

 synthesizing vitamin C while failing of this function in man, the guinea 

 pig, and monkey. 



Consistently with the fact above noted that guinea pig liver is not 

 constant in antiscorbutic value, Anderson (1929) has demonstrated 



