270 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



Such tabulation as the above is perhaps sufficient index 

 of how to test out any foodstuffs concerning which we 

 have similar data. 



In our introduction we called attention to one view- 

 point which we wish to reemphasize here. The vi- 

 tamin hypothesis has not changed any of the basal 

 principles by which we judge food value but merely re- 

 quires us to supplement that knowledge by an additional 

 criterion. How has this supplementary material been 

 derived ? What led to the vitamin hypothesis ? 



Briefly, two lines of investigation that at first may 

 seem to have no relationship. First, the prevalence in 

 certain parts of the world of a disease whose cause was 

 unknown and whose toll of human lives justified scientific 

 study. Second, the attempt of the nutrition students 

 to prove that if we ate foods which met all the require- 

 ments cited above we would get normal growth, and the 

 failure of the experiments to demonstrate this. 



Since the word vitamin itself was coined as a result of 

 pursuit of the first line of investigation we will consider 

 that side of the story first. In the Orient, especially 

 in East Asia, where the diet consisted largely of fish and 

 white or polished rice, a peculiar disease often mani- 

 fested itself to which was given the name beri-beri. 

 This disease has been known for hundreds of years. 

 Outside of the Orient the second greatest area was Brazil 

 and the disease was also known, though less extensively, 

 in many other districts of the world. The idea that this 

 disease was of dietary origin seems to have first sug- 

 gested itself about 1878-1880. In 1882 Takaki pro- 



