PHYSIOLOGICAL 277 



VITAMINS 



The little things of this world often count for much more than 

 the large. The invisible microbe kills the giant by multiplying in 

 his blood and producing poisons which may be fatal within a 

 few hours. So it is in a beneficent way with two kinds of things 

 that are not related to one another, though they both work in 

 very minute quantities, namely vitamins and hormones. Vitamins, 

 which are also called "accTessory food-factors", are substances or 

 qualities of substances that are present in small amounts in many 

 kinds of natural food. If they are absent, then the food, though 

 otherwise quite wholesome, loses much of its efficacy for promoting 

 health and growth. Hormones are invisible chemical messengers 

 that are formed by several ductless glands in the body, especially 

 in backboned animals, and are distributed by the blood, regulating 

 the various internal activities. If they are not formed in sufficient 

 quantity there is disharmony or disease, and similarly if they are 

 produced in over-abundance. They are the regulators of the life of 

 the body, and of the health of the mind as well. Let us take the 

 vitamins first. 



When people or animals feed exclusively on polished rice, with 

 the delicate rind removed, the strange disease called Beri-Beri sets 

 in, or some disturbance of an allied nature. The conclusion that 

 most physiologists draw from this common experience is that an 

 important chemical substance of some sort has been lost by the 

 removal of the outermost zone of the rice grain. 



This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the disease can be 

 checked and health restored by replacing what was removed, that 

 is to say by using unpolished rice. Or the same result may be 

 reached by adding to the polished rice diet a small quantity of 

 some other kind of food, which is therefore believed to contain 

 what was missing. Various kinds of vitamins have been studied 

 during recent years, but we do not yet know their chemical nature 

 or how they work. No vitamin has yet been obtained in a state of 

 indubitable purity, though some investigators have probably come 

 very near this desirable isolation. 



How did our forefathers do without vitamins? The obvious 

 answer is that they got on well on the whole, though not always, 

 because vitamins are present in the natural mixed food that sensible 

 people usually eat if they get a chance. A deficiency of vitamins 

 arises when the diet is too monotonous, or too artificial, or when 

 the food is much broken up and only part of it used, or when some 

 very essential kind of food, such as milk for young children, is not 

 forthcoming. As to rice, which is the staple food of a large fraction 

 of the world's population, the evil effects of the artificial treatment 



