60 PHYSIOLOGY AND NATIONAL NEEDS 



powerful antiscorbutics by the simple process of 

 steeping and germination. This has been suggested 

 as a valuable means of protection against scurvy, 1 

 and the value of germinated beans as a cure for 

 scurvy has been demonstrated by Wiltshire, 2 who 

 treated a number of military patients with this 

 material and found it quite as efficacious as an equal 

 weight of lemon juice. 



Properties of the Antiscorbutic Accessory. Effects 

 of Heating and Drying. The outstanding property 

 of the antiscorbutic accessory factor is its instability. 

 When the materials containing it are heated, dried, 

 or even simply preserved, their antiscorbutic pro- 

 perties gradually disappear. The effects of heating 

 and drying are of special practical importance, and 

 have been investigated in this country by Delf 

 and Skelton, 3 and in America by Givens and his 

 colleagues. 4 When cabbage is dried at a low tem- 

 perature and subsequently stored for two to three 

 weeks at laboratory temperature, it loses more than 

 93 per cent of its antiscorbutic potency, and a 

 further loss occurs on continued storage, so that 

 after three months only about 3 per cent of its 

 original potency remains. Analogous results have 

 been obtained with dried potatoes, whereas dried 

 tomatoes (Givens and M'Clugage) appear to retain 



1 Chick and Hume, Trans. Soc. Trop. Med. and Hyg., 1917, 10, 141. 



* Lancet, 1918, Dec. 14. 



Delf, Biochem. J., 1918, 12, 416 ; Delf and Skelfcon, Biochem. J., 

 1918, 12, 448. 



Various papers in J. Biol. Ghem. 



