VITAMIN E 343 



function or, as in the case of the other vitamins, it takes part in some 

 way in the usual metaboHc processes of the body. Vitamin E is always 

 present, though not in large amounts, in the tissues of newborn rats. 

 This in itself would suggest the necessity of the vitamin for the normal 

 functioning of the body. I'hat there is some normal use or wastage of 

 vitamin E in the usual metabolic processes of the body was inferred by 

 Evans and Burr from observations which indicated that shielding 

 female rats from the nutritional demands of reproduction did not 

 result in any marked prolongation of the period of retention of fertility 

 on vitamin-E-free food. 



In an attempt to discover a possible relationship between vitamin E 

 and the metabolism of other food constituents, Anderson (1926) 

 studied the composition of the blood and the metabolism of nitro- 

 gen and fat in rats on rations with and without vitamin E, but dis- 

 covered no differences which might account for the function of 

 vitamin E. 



The possibility that vitamin E might be a factor concerned in 

 hematin building and consequently with iron assimilation had been 

 suggested by Hart, Steenbock, Elvehjem, and Waddell, and this had 

 led Hogan and Harshaw (1926a) and later Sure, Kik, and Walker 

 (1929a) to examine the blood of rats rendered sterile by lack of vita- 

 min E, Hogan and Harshaw reported no differences in the erythrocyte 

 counts of female rats which had resorbed their fetuses because of vita- 

 min E deficiency from those of controls which had carried their litters 

 to term on adequate diets. They also found no reduction in the con- 

 centration of hemoglobin in either male or female on vitamin-E-deficient 

 rations. Sure, Kik, and Walker likewise reported no reduction in hemo- 

 globin and erythrocytes of female rats during the period of resorption 

 of the fetuses and no reduction in the total leucocyte count as the result 

 of vitamin E deficiency. Lack of association between iron or other 

 mineral constituents and vitamin E was shown by the failure of ferric 

 citrate or ash of lettuce leaves to prevent female sterility produced by 

 vitamin E deficiency. 



Evans and Burr (1928) described a peculiar form of paralysis 

 developing in suckling rats of mothers on diets low, but not completely 

 lacking, in vitamin E, but abundantly supplied with vitamin B so 

 essential for successful lactation. The paralysis, which develops a day 

 or two before the weaning day (twenty-first day), begins with difficulty 

 in regaining the use of the limbs when the rats are placed on their 

 backs and increases until part of the musculature of the body and the 

 limbs is paralyzed, although the animal appears normal in other ways. 



