G08 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



October 1920 



tlie solubl.o Jiiiuerals found in the human 

 body. 



ON account of lack of space in the last 

 issue I merely alluded to the fact that 

 Prof. Hawk's feeding experiments in- 

 dicated that there are no anti-scorbutic 

 vitamines, called water-soluble C^ in honey. 

 His experiments to determine this were 

 conducted with guinea pigs as the victims; 

 for they were victims, developing symp- 

 toms of scurvy as soon on the diet contain- 

 ing honey as they did on a diet known to 

 be deficient in water-soluble C, altho other- 

 wise balanced. 



An interesting corroboration of this re- 

 port occurs in an account of three men 

 who were separated from Stef ausson 's party 

 during his polar exploration. These men 

 depended largely upon some cached foods 

 which they had found — flour, salt pork, 

 butter, honey, sugar, pilot bread, preserved 

 fruit, pemmican, meat extract, dried fruit, 

 rice, beans, and peas. They all three de- 

 veloped scurvy, but were promptly cured 

 when fed large amounts of meat, mostly 

 raw. 



Note that the honey was in this case in 

 very good company, for the other footls 

 mentioned were valuable even if they did 

 lack the anti-scorbutic vitaniine. The best 

 authorities agree that even milk is of only 

 moderate value as an anti-scorbutic, and 

 loses most of the value when pasteurized 

 or boiled. That is the reason that orange 

 juice is added to the infant's diet when 

 it is fed pasteurized, sterilized, or con- 

 densed milk. It has also been proved that 

 milk is by no means rich in water-soluble 

 B altho it contains it in small amounts. 



In spite of Stefansson's experience, feed- 

 ing experiments with animals have never 

 indicated that meat is very rich in water- 

 soluble C. But the men of the Stefansson 

 expedition ate it in extremely large quanti- 

 ties, including the fat and certain internal 

 organs not generally eaten, and a large 

 part of it was consumed raw. Water-solu- 

 ble C is found in living vegetable and 

 animal tissues, in largest amounts in fresh 

 fruits and green vegetables. 



THERE, you think I am wandering 

 miles from my subject, don't you? 

 But there is method in my side trips, 

 altho it may not be apparent. Now that 

 we know there are vitamines in lioney we 

 ought to be well enough- informed to be 

 able to talk intelligently about the three 

 kinds, always remembering that history is 

 in the making as regards vitamines, and 

 that something new is constantly being 

 discovered. As my big boy quotes Latin 

 to tell me "Repetition is the mother of 

 education, ' ' so please forgive me if I go 

 on to talk a little more about the vita- 

 mines, water-soluble B and fat-soluble A. 

 Water-soluble B occurs more widely in 

 plant "than in animal foods. It is found 

 in practically all fresh vegetables, in cere- 

 als from which the germ has not been re- 



moved by so-called refining processes, in 

 rice polishings, in the heart, kidney, brain, 

 and liver of animals, and in yeast, the last 

 named being the richest known source of 

 this vitamine. Water-soluble B is essential ' 

 for normal growth and reproduction, and 

 its absence produces the diseases polyneu- 

 ritis and beriberi. While there is little 

 danger of well-defined cases of these two 

 diseases in the mixed diet of civilization, 

 the best authorities agree that there is a 

 danger of a deficiency of this vitamine in 

 the modern diet with its overrefined foods 

 and its enormous amount of canned goods; 

 for the long heating necessary to sterilize 

 canned foods is known to weaken and de- 

 stroy the vitamine content. This deficiency 

 is believed to be responsible for much ill 

 health along the lines of polyneuritis and 

 beriberi, but less well defined. 



FAT-SOLUBLE A is found in abundance 

 in the fat of milk, the yolk of egg, 

 and in the green, leafy vegetables, such 

 as spinach. It is also fairly abundant in 

 fish oils, such as cod liver oil and even 

 whale oil. I wonder of what value it will 

 be to the world in the latter-named oil, 

 if it smells like the vile stuff I have used 

 to spray my rose bushes. 



Oleo oil contains a fair amount of fat- 

 soluble A and therefore the oleomargarines 

 contain it also, but not the nut margarines 

 made wholly from vegetable oils. How- 

 ever, we are warned by the nutrition ex- 

 perts that oleomargarines are not to be 

 considered in the same class as good but- 

 ter in providing the organism with the fat- 

 soluble vitamine. 



The fat-soluble vitamine is necessary to 

 growth and development, especially in the 

 young, and it is necessary to the mainten- 

 ance of health in the adult. Its absence 

 causes an eye disease, xerophthalmia, some- 

 times so severe as to cause blindness. Of 

 late it appears that rickets in infants may 

 be connected with the absence of the fat- 

 soluble vitamine. 



In the past few years much has been 

 added to the knowledge of vitamines, not 

 only from laboratory experiments but by 

 observation of human experience in inade- 

 quate war diets in Europe. Also a form 

 of partial blindness has ■ been observed to 

 be prevalent in certain lumber eamps where 

 the only fat available was that from cured 

 bacon, which would be entirely lacking in 

 the fat-soluble vitaniine. 



TO bo consistent, here is a point which 

 needs emphasis, even if I have a whole 

 family of perfectly good relatives in- 

 terested "in the honey-bottling business, to 

 say nothing of hundreds of beekeeping 

 friends producing extracted honey. You 

 know we have always plumed ourselves 

 that honey is nature's own and only con- 

 centrated sweet, uninjured by any so-called 

 refining processes. But now Prof. Hawk 's 

 report of the fat-soluble vitamines in comb 

 (Cvntinuid on page 631.) 



