VITAMINS AND CALORIES 95 



aleurone-layer and polished the rice, but tlic mcclianical 

 process so diminished the food-value of the rice as to cause 

 disease. The j^reservation or retaining of the germ and 

 aleurone-layer at any rate to some extent remedies tliis defect. 



Pellagra is found where maize is a main article of diet, 

 e.g. as polenta-flour in Italy and parts of America. It is caused 

 also by machine-milling and the lack of the germinal part of 

 the cereal. In the older hand-miUing this was not lost. Turnip 

 juice may supply the deficiency thus brought about. 



The Anti-Scorbutic Vitamin, Water Soluble C, is found 

 chiefly in green vegetable food, i.e. leaves of the cabbage, 

 lettuce, clover, etc. It is also found in lemon-juice, but not 

 in lime-juice. Our troops in Mesopotamia suffered badly from 

 scurvy although supplied ^vith quarts of lime-juice, but when 

 given lemons instead the disease became much less prevalent. 

 The old faith in scurvy-grass or Coclilearia as a remedy is 

 justified by modern discovery. 



Orange-juice is a valuable source of Water Soluble Vita- 

 min C, and babies fed on a milk diet may safely be given four 

 to five teaspoonfuls of orange-juice daily. A nursing mother 

 should also take it, or some food suj^plying it, e.g. grape-juice 

 or lemon, as the child may suffer from its deficiency in the 

 mother's diet. 



Growth is dependent on the presence of both Fat Soluble A 

 and Water Soluble B in the diet, and they are necessary, though 

 not perhaps in so high a percentage, in the diet of adults to 

 sustain life and increase resistance to disease. 



There seems to be something — not yet isolated — in sea- 

 water which acts like the vitamins. The average composition 

 of the salt water is accurately known and is very fairly con- 

 stant. Sea- water can be artificially prepared, but in this purely 

 artificial medium marine organisms will not grow. After 

 adding a trace of natural sea- water (1 to 4 per cent.) to the 

 artificial fluid all sorts of marine organisms flourish abun- 

 dantly in the mixture. Something akin to vitamins must 

 have been introduced. 



Calories 



Since the processes that go on in living animals and ]ilants 

 involve slow combustion, it is necessary to form some estimate 



