VITAMINES 29 



reformers," whose zeal outruns their knowledge. 

 There are facts, however, which support the view 

 that where commercial or other enterprise supplies 

 the public with articles of diet which have been 

 treated or '' refined " so as to please the eye, or to 

 accord with a fashion or convenience, it may be 

 encouraging very wrong practice. Eelated facts 

 show that the public when employing tinned or 

 dried or preserved foods should use them with 

 discretion and supplement them properly. 



To the naive view that the one important factor 

 in nutrition is the quantity eaten the science of the 

 last century added one discriminative aspect, namely, 

 that quality must be considered as well as quantity 

 in so far that the food eaten must in any case contain 

 a certain minimum of protein. It taught that the 

 essential constituents of a diet which promotes 

 proper nutrition are protein, carbohydrate, fat, and 

 mineral salts, the organic materials being always 

 provided in sufiicient amount to supply the demands 

 of the body for energy. 



What we have lately learnt — though it is remark- 

 able how slowly came a recognition of the facts — 

 is that, in addition to the above constituents, which 

 our diets always contain in tangible and easily 

 ascertainable amounts, an efficient diet must also 

 comprise quite other substances, of which the char- 

 acteristic is that their nutritive importance is out 

 of all proportion to the minute quantity in which 



