ioo THE SPIRIT OF THE SOIL 



curing experimental beriberi. Its formula is not 

 definitely known, but it is a nitrogenous substance, 

 appears to be a pyrimidine base, and probably exists 

 in food as a constituent of nucleic acid. Of this 

 substance Dr. Watson-Wemyss, in an article on 

 " A Summary of Recent Work on Vitamines," pub- 

 lished in the Edinburgh Medical Journal for last 

 March, writes: 



" As a result of this valuable work, the prevention 

 and cure of beriberi came to rest for the first time on 

 a scientific basis. Funk's vitamine has been proved 

 to be the most powerful and rapid remedy we 

 possess in beriberi. It is present in food in such 

 minute quantities that simple dietetic treatment of 

 the disease brings about recovery very slowly, and 

 the difficulty of obtaining isolated vitamine, together 

 with its expense, make its general use at present 

 impossible. It is hoped that it may prove possible 

 to produce Funk's vitamine synthetically." 



Once this new line of research was suggested to 

 workers, it was soon found that vitamines were 

 widely distributed both in the animal and vegetable 

 kingdom. Yeast, milk, yolk of eggs, meat, wheat, 

 oats, and barley, have all been shown to contain 

 them. They are not identical in character. While, 

 for instance, dried corn only contains beriberi 

 vitamine, scurvy vitamine also appears as soon as 

 the corn begins to germinate. Fresh-growing plants, 

 potatoes, juicy fruits, and vegetables, are rich in 

 scurvy vitamines, but they disappear on drying or 

 on heating to 100 C. Beriberi vitamine resists 

 drying, and is also more resistant to heat. A point 

 requiring emphasis at this stage is the minute 



