ACCESSORY FOOD BODIES 101 



quantity of vitamine that is present. In rice, for 

 instance, only the ten-thousandth part of the rice 

 consists of vitamine, a fact that suggests that the 

 action of vitamines is in some way comparable with 

 that of hormones and the secretions of the ductless 

 glands. 



It has long been recognized that scurvy is a disease 

 conditioned by the absence of fresh food, and that 

 if fresh food is obtainable the disease yields rapidly 

 to treatment. Sea experience of long standing 

 has proved the efficiency of lime-juice in its treat- 

 ment, and Funk has shown both that lime-juice is 

 rich in scurvy vitamine, and that the acidity in its 

 composition helps to increase its stability. While 

 scurvy and beriberi are similar, there seems to be no 

 doubt that they are different diseases, caused by the 

 absence of different vitamines from the diet, for 

 whereas scurvy vitamine by itself can prevent both 

 beriberi and scurvy, beriberi vitamine will prevent 

 only beriberi, and will not affect scurvy. 



For those interested in the subject of vitamines 

 there is already a long literature available, and no 

 useful purpose would be served here by further 

 considering the relation between vitamines and 

 other diseases. Reference, however, must be made 

 to the experiments conducted by Benjamin Moore 

 and others, on the relations between vitamines and 

 healthy growth. On feeding young rats with a 

 diet of white bread growth was very soon arrested, 

 whereas they flourished on a diet of wholemeal bread. 

 The experiment had many interesting features. 

 It showed, for instance, how the vitamine-starved 



