286 THE CHEMISTRY OF GROWTH AND REPAIR 



edema of wet beriberi has not been determined, but it is highly prob- 

 able that their origin has something in common. Both are dropsies 

 due to diet deficiency, and it may well be that the deficiency is 

 the same in each case. In both these conditions, as well as in the 

 "Mehlnahrschaden" of starch-fed babies, there is the common ele- 

 ment of relatively excessive carbohydrate supply, which may have 

 something to do with the dropsy. The clinical evidence is against the 

 view that nutritional edema depends on a lack of specific vitamines.^-" 



Experimental work supports the clinical evidence as to the etiology 

 of nutritional edema. Miss Kohman^^ has found that rats fed diets 

 composed chiefly of carrots often develop a severe edema, which is 

 prevented by supplying protein, but not by butter fat or starch. 

 Evidently neither fat-soluble nor water-soluble vitamines are respons- 

 ible. It was found that on a dry diet of equal caloric and protein de- 

 ficiency the rats are not so likely to develop edema. Experiments 

 done in my laboratory by M. B. Maver"^" agree fully with those of Miss 

 Kohman. Apparently low protein and high fluid intake are the most 

 essential factors, although relatively high carbohydrate must also be 

 considered. 



Scurvy would seem almost certainly to be a deficiency disease, 

 but there has been much disagreement as to this point, especially 

 among those who have studied experimental scurvy in animals. There 

 is room for doubt that the expei'imental disease in animals is identical 

 with human scurvy, at least there is reason to believe that more than 

 one concHtion has been described as scurvy in experimental animals. 

 Apparently guinea pigs, however, develop readily a disease which 

 resembles scurvy very closely both anatomically and in its relation to 

 dietary conditions. Hess, who has studied especially infantile scurvy, 

 finds that orange juice given intravenously will relieve scurvy, and 

 thus apparently disposes of all theories of gastrointestinal disorders as 

 the responsible factor. Artificial "orange juice," (containing sugar, 

 citric acid and inorganic salts in the proportions found in natural 

 orange juice) is ineffective, so that apparently scurvy is the result of 

 lack of some undetermined substance present in orange juice as well 

 as in other fresh vegetable foods. As yet we have no evidence as to 

 the character of this "vitamine," which has been designated as 

 "water-soluble C," but it is probably quite distinct from either water- 

 soluble B or fat-soluble A,^^ and Hess believes that our ordinary 

 dietary probably does not contain any great excess of the antiscorbutic 

 element, since scurvy so readily appears when the necessary vegetable 

 foods arc reduced in amount. According to Chick and Hiune this 

 vitaminc is present in living vegetable and animal tissues, in largest 



«2«See Burger, Zeit. Exp. Med., 1919 (8), 309. 



" Denton and Kohman, Jour. Biol. Chem., 1918 (36), 249; Kohman, Amer. 

 Jour. Physiol., 1920 (51), 378. 



"Cohen and Mendel, Jour. Biol. Chem., 191S (35), 425. 



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