60 PHYSIOLOGY AND NATIONAL NEEDS 



powerful antiscorbutics by tbe simple process of 

 steeping and germination. This has been suggested 

 as a valuable means of protection against scurvy/ 

 and the value of germinated beans as a cure for 

 scurvy has been demonstrated by Wiltshire,^ who 

 treated a number of military patients with this 

 material and found it quite as efficacious as an equal 

 weight of lemon juice. 



Properties of the Antiscorbutic Accessory. Effects 

 of Heating and Drying. — The outstanding property 

 of the antiscorbutic accessory factor is its instability. 

 When the materials containing it are heated, dried, 

 or even simply preserved, their antiscorbutic pro- 

 perties gradually disappear. The effects of heating 

 and drying are of special practical importance, and 

 have been investigated in this country by Delf 

 and Skelton,^ and in America by Givens and his 

 colleagues.* When cabbage is dried at a low tem- 

 perature and subsequently stored for two to three 

 weeks at laboratory temperature, it loses more than 

 93 per cent of its antiscorbutic potency, and a 

 further loss occurs on continued storage, so that 

 after three months only about 3 per cent of its 

 original potency remains. Analogous results have 

 been obtained with dried potatoes, whereas dried 

 tomatoes (Givens and M'Clugage) appear to retain 



^ Chick and Hume, Trans. Soc. Trop. Med. and Hyg.y 1917, 10, 141. 

 2 Lancet, 1918, Dec. 14. 



* Delf, Biochem. J., 1918, 12, 416 ; Delf and Skelton, Biochem. J., 

 1918, 12, 448. 



* Various papers in J. Biol. Chem. 



