VITAMINES 45 



as adults are concerned, remain absent. If the 

 necessary accessory factors are missing from one 

 article of diet they will probably be supplied in 

 others. It is by no means so sure that this remains 

 true in the case of the child population. I would 

 ask you here to give your attention to certain 

 matters of fact, hoping that you will not think them 

 trivial because they concern food-stufis that are so 

 familiar. 



First, consider our bread supply. The ancient 

 controversy concerning the relative merits of brown 

 and white bread has been tainted by prejudice. We 

 have had enthusiasm without knowledge on the one 

 side — often mere quackery — and to some extent at 

 least we have had the influence of trade interests 

 on the other side. I hold no brief for whole-meal 

 bread. I think the well-fed and well-to-do public 

 may be justified, now the war is over, in insisting 

 upon returning to its very white loaf, if this loaf 

 suits its taste and appetite better than any other. 

 Other articles eaten will surely supply any deficiency. 

 It is well to face the facts, however. The elabor- 

 ate milling, the '' refining " which the wheat grain 

 suffers before it appears in the form of our white i 

 flours, deprives it entirely of its water-soluble vita- \ 

 mine. If our pure white wheaten flour were in this j 

 country to form so large a proportion of the whole 

 diet as rice does in the East, beriberi would with 

 certainty appear among us. Indeed, in certain 



