VITAMIN C 179 



simple matter to convert antiscorbutic values that have been reported 

 since the general adoption in this country of the Sherman method into 

 tooth protective values. We will need only to multiply by two. 



"What the true values are in terms of teeth obviously requires 

 much more extended study. I believe, however, that the results reported 

 herewith justify considerable faith in the Hojer method, and its speed, 

 its relative simplicity, its greater freedom from the danger of con- 

 taminating disease factors in the longer test all commend it to our 

 careful appraisal." 



Dalldorf and Zall (1930) have recently recommended using the rate 

 of growth of the incisor teeth of guinea pigs in testing foodstuffs for 

 their antiscorbutic value. In their opinion "under standard experimental 

 conditions used in the testing of foodstuffs for antiscorbutic value, the 

 rate of tooth growth would appear to be a precise indication of the 

 degree of scurvy, being more delicate than the Sherman (Kenny, 1926) 

 score, and more constant as w^ell as more simple, than the Hojer 

 method." 



Occurrence and Stability o£ Vitamin C in Food Materials 



Impetus to a systematic study of the occurrence of the antiscorbutic 

 vitamin in food materials and its stability under different treatment 

 was given by the tremendous problem of civilian and army rationing 

 during the World War. A striking illustration of the relationship of 

 beriberi and scurvy to particular dietary deficiencies is afforded by 

 the reports of Willcox (1917, 1920) and of Hehir (1919, 1919a) of 

 the outbreaks of beriberi in the British troops and scurvy in the Indian 

 troops in Mesopotamia in 1915 and 1916, particularly during the sieo-e 

 of Kut-el-Amara. Hehir reported that during this siege there were 

 about 1,050 cases of scurvy, all but one of which were in the Indian 

 troops, while beriberi appeared among the British, and not among 

 the Indian troops. 



The high incidence of scurvy among the Indian troops and its almost 

 complete absence among the British troops was traced to the use by 

 the latter of fresh meat toward the end of the siege when the bullocks, 

 horses, and mules were killed to eke out the diminishing food supplies. 

 The Indians who did not overcome their scruples against eating such 

 flesh were the worst sufferers from scurvy. In the last period of the 

 siege, although the men were rapidly losing weight on a starvation 

 diet, the disease declined coincident with the use of about 3 ounces per 

 man per day of green herbs collected from the plains. It was empha- 

 sized that fresh meat alone without vegetables will not indefinitely 



