36 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1437 



based upon evidence, but upon uncertain anal- 

 ogy with laboratory animals. That human 

 dietaries are so frequently deficient in the fat- 

 soluble vitamine as to warrant general recom- 

 mendations for an increased consumption of 

 foods rich in this dietary factor, is a presump- 

 tion still further removed from fact. The lat- 

 ter statement may also be made relative to any 

 of the known vitamines. 



In regard to vitamine A in particular, the 

 fact is sometimes overlooked that this seems 

 to be a peculiarly growth vitamine, its func- 

 tions in the animal body probably being con- 

 fined largely if not entirely to the period 

 of active growth. Adul-t rats have been 

 maintained in good health for over a year on 

 rations devoid of this vitamine as judged by 

 current standards. At the Illinois Agi'icultural 

 Experiment Station, four sows have been main- 

 tained for nearly a year on a ration of white 

 corn (Silver Mine) and tankage, and have suc- 

 cessfully raised two litters of pigs each, though 

 the ration, according to tests on rats, is near- 

 ly if not entirely devoid of vitamine A. 



In a recent report on vitamines prepared by 

 the Medical Research Committee of the (Brit- 

 ish) National Health Insurance Commission, 

 the relation of vitamines to the public health 

 is discussed somewhat fully, and the conclu- 

 sions reached have been widely circulated in 

 this country. The tenor of their conclusions is 

 that "a deficiency in food, which when com- 

 plete or extreme leads to actual disease, may, 

 when only relative, be responsible for ill health 

 of a vague but still important kind," and in 

 particular that "a deficiency of an accessory 

 factor (vitamine) may be of a much smaller 

 order than that necessary to produce the tj^pi- 

 cal syndrome of the disease usually associated 

 with the deficiency, but may nevertheless be 

 sufficient to induce a distinct failure of nutri- 

 tion and health." No criticism can be made of 

 such hypothetical statements as these, but when 

 the argument is made to converge upon a defi- 

 nite proposition that "there is a very real 

 danger that the improperly balanced dietaries 

 consumed in many cases may lead to a partial 

 deficiency of one or more of the necessai-y sub- 

 stances (vitamines), if not of other components 



as well," one may be pardoned for question- 

 ing the reality of any such danger. The 

 reasons for transforming a possibility into a 

 "very real danger" are not at all obvious. And 

 yet such a transformation is tacitly involved 

 in any general recommendation that vitamine 

 foods should be substituted in the bill of fare 

 for other food materials less rich in vitamines, 

 or that vitamine preparations having little 

 other food value should be regularly consumed. 



In the issue of Science for October 28, 

 McClendon argues for the use of tablets con- 

 taining vitamines A, B, and C. His plea is 

 based upon premises of doubtful soundness. 

 He points out the low content in \-itamines of 

 wheat flour, cane sugar, and hydrogenated fats, 

 but does not consider the possibility that other 

 staple articles of food, available the year 

 round, including dairy products, meats, po- 

 tatoes, and canned and preserved vegetables 

 and fruits, may entirely supplement the diet 

 with respect to vitamines. Nor does he con- 

 sider that the general consumption of fresh 

 vegetable foods, rich in vitamines, during the 

 spring and summer months may result in a 

 considerable storage of vitamines in the body 

 which may aid in tiding over a period of low 

 vitamine intake. The statement made that 

 "there are many families who do not, under 

 the present system, receive sufficient vitamines 

 in their food," has no claim to credence, since 

 it does not seem to be based upon any evi- 

 dence whatsoever. Nor is there any particular 

 reason why it should be assigned any high de- 

 gree of probability. 



The attitude taken in this brief discussion of 

 the practical bearing of the recently acquired 

 fund of information relating to vitamines, is 

 admittedly conservative, though only to the ex- 

 tent of insisting that the connection between 

 general conclusions and recommendations on 

 this matter and experimental or other evidence 

 should be sufficiently tangible to constitute at 

 least a fair deduction. At a time when popular 

 periodicals are widely publishing irresponsible 

 articles on vitamines, ignorantly or deliberately 

 creating an entirely distorted popular concep- 

 tion of them, and when commercial concerns 

 are widely advertising purely hypothetical ad- 



