VITAMIN C 187 



be interesting to see if a similar explanation would hold for the low 

 content of vitamin C in limes. 



Grapes appear to have received surprisingly little attention. Chick 

 and Rhodes (1918) report that scurvy developed in three or four guinea 

 pigs receiving 20 grams each of grapes daily. This would therefore 

 appear to approximate the minimum protective allowance and to indi- 

 cate that the concentration of vitamin C in grapes is about one-tenth 

 as great as in oranges. Givens and Macy (1921) state that grape juice 

 dried by the spray process shows no antiscorbutic properties. 



The tomato, while ordinarily referred to as a vegetable, is more 

 properly a fruit and may well be considered at this point because of 

 the similarity of tomato juice to orange juice as an antiscorbutic. Hess 

 and Unger (1918) called attention to the importance of tomatoes 

 whether fresh or canned as antiscorbutics and showed that canned 

 tomato juice is a very efficient, readily available, and inexpensive anti- 

 scorbutic which may be used in the same manner and with practically 

 the same results as orange juice, even in the feeding of infants. Hess 

 (1920) says: "In our experience there is no contra-indication to the 

 giving of orange juice or of strained canned tomato, the two anti- 

 scorbutics with which we have had a large experience, to babies one 

 month of age or even younger." And again "Tomatoes . . . are re- 

 garded with suspicion amounting almost to superstition by mothers and 

 nurses as a food for children. In spite of this fact, it may be stated 

 without hesitation that they are fully as well borne by infants a few 

 weeks or months of age as orange or lemon juice. . . . The dose is two 

 tablespoonfuls for babies over three months of age. The tomatoes are 

 merely strained through a colander and warmed (not cooked). To 

 illustrate their innocuous character, it may be added that as much as 6 

 and 8 ounces a day of this juice have been given to a baby under one 

 year of age without producing untoward symptoms. This antiscorbutic 

 should have a wide applicability, especially in the United States." 



It is probable that the antiscorbutic property of the canned tomato 

 was a factor (even though not consciously recognized) in the popu- 

 larity of this food among, for example, the city poor as well as among 

 those economically able to command a more diversified diet. A similar 

 significance may be attached to the provision introduced into the United 

 States Army Regulations in 1895 permitting requisition of canned 

 tomatoes "in lieu of an equal quantity of potatoes not exceeding twenty 

 per cent of the total issue." Hess records (1920, p. 231) his inability 

 to ascertain whether or not the canned tomatoes were thus provided for 

 specifically as an antiscorbutic. 



