CONSERVATION OF ENERGY 233 



would be mainly if not entirely directive, and 



they would be merely got rid of by means of 



an ordinary method of chemical change when 



done with. Again, the vitamines, now known Vitamincs 



to be of such immense importance, are known 



also to be infinitesimal in connection with the 



effects which they produce. It is the absence 



of the appropriate vitamines for example, the 



vitamine which exists immediately under the 



skin of a potato, which causes scurvy which was 



such a scourge to sailors until it was discovered 



empirically and long before vitamines were ever 



beard of, that fresh vegetables or lime juice 



would prevent its advent. 



Another vitamine, removed from rice by what 

 is known as " polishing," by its absence causes 

 beri-beri, a disease of the nerves in those whose 

 chief diet it is. This disease can be experiment- 

 ally produced in chickens by feeding them with 

 polished rice, i.e., rice from which the outer 

 surface has been removed, and the disease can 

 be cured, and rapidly, by giving them doses of 

 the removed outer coat which contains the 

 vitamine. Finally, there are the " anti-bodies," Anti-bodies 

 produced in the organism by vaccines, auto- 

 genous or otherwise, as to which our knowledge 

 is as yet only in its infancy. In all these cases 

 the action seems to be more or less directive, 

 though it would be more than rash to dogmatise 



