VITAMINES 5 



but these will not cure or prevent the disease. It was 

 said that calcium citrate was precipitated from milk 

 by boiling, but evidently this cannot be the explana- 

 tion when citrates fail to control scurvy. Hoist and 

 Frohlich have imitated the symptoms in guinea-pigs 

 by confining them to a grain diet ; they are rapidly 

 cured by fresh vegetables or fresh milk. Milk heated 

 to 70° is still efficient ; if kept at 98° for ten minutes 

 the antiscorbutic power is lost. No doubt a vitamine 

 is destroyed. Probably this vitamine may fail at 

 the end of a long lactation, even in fresh human milk, 

 thus accounting for a few authentic cases of scurvy 

 in breast-fed babies. 



The bodies in milk which protect against scurvy 

 and against beri-beri are not identical. They differ 

 in their reaction to heat. All vitamines appear to be 

 delicate substances w^hich are lost in the process of 

 keeping. 



Rickets is, no doubt, another deficiency disease. 

 The infants have usually been fed upon a diet con- 

 taining too much starch and sugar, and too little fat 

 and protein. The observations of Bland-Sutton at 

 the London Zoo rather point to the deficiency of fat 

 as being the more important. A lioness there was 

 unable to suckle for long, and litter after litter of cubs 

 had died of rickets. Investigation of the diet showed 

 that they were fed upon London cab-horse, which 

 naturally did not supply any fat, and their little 

 teeth were not able to crush the bones and obtain the 

 marrow. When they were given milk, cod-liver oil, 

 and pounded bones they did excellently. It is well 

 known, of course, that cod-liver oil, cream, and fresh 



