384 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946 
derived from the old English verb meaning “twisted,” in 1650. Beri- 
beri ravaged the Japanese Navy at the turn of the last century and 
plagued the Philippines for many years. 
That there exist substances necessary to life although required only 
in relatively minute amounts is, however, a relatively new concept. 
The term “vitamin” was introduced in 1911. For many years these 
substances were so mysterious that the letters of the alphabet were used 
to name them and they were known only by the effects of their absence. 
Their total number in those earlier days was not even suspected. To- 
day, when we know the chemical formulas of more than 14 of these 
remarkable substances, it is recognized that still others remain unre- 
vealed. The demonstration of their widespread physiological action 
and of the effects of their administration in conditions of deficiency 
has been one of the most important achievements in the present era. 
This newer knowledge has been worked out for the most part in 
animal experiments. ‘The first experimentally produced deficiency 
disorder came about largely by accident. In the Dutch East Indies, 
Eijkman was engaged in certain experiments with chickens when his 
stock diet of chicken feed ran out. He was forced, as a consequence, 
to give them the table scraps from the adjoining hospital. Since the 
diet of the natives consisted almost exclusively of polished rice, this 
is what the chickens received. Great was the surprise when the 
chickens developed a disorder resembling the beriberi which was so 
prevalent in the East Indian Islands. Eijkman soon found that the 
skin of the rice kernel or even the rice bran relieved the condition in 
the chickens. Thus was the first of the “B” vitamins discovered. 
The rat became the favorite animal for experiments in nutrition. 
The chick, the dog, the guinea pig, and more recently the rabbit, the 
pig, the mouse, and the hamster, and even bacteria have played their 
role in advancing the science of nutrition. We have learned how 
vitamin A is important for vision and how night-blindness develops 
in its absence; how important thiamin is for the heart, and we have 
seen the extreme shortness of breath that develops in the pig in its 
absence; how riboflavin is concerned with growth and with the eyes, 
for in its absence cataract may develop; how sick dogs became in 
the absence of niacin. We have seen pigs lacking vitamin Bg suffer 
from severe convulsions, become extremely anemic, and develop a 
peculiar gait. It has been shown that the hair of the black rat turns 
gray in the absence of pantothenic acid and that the pig becomes 
bald, ceases growing, and becomes unable to walk. We have learned 
how in a guinea pig lack of vitamin C leads to serious hemorrhages 
in the tissues, and death; how the rat in the absence of vitamin E 
becomes sterile and the rabbit develops certain peculiar changes in the 
muscles; and how the chick lacking vitamin K is the victim of a severe 
