June 13, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



909 



bran a nitrogenous base, -whicli they call 

 oryzanine, which proves to be a specific for 

 the cure of the disease. Pigeons, chickens, 

 mice and dogs, which would die in a few days 

 or weeks with symptoms of starvation and 

 nerve inflammation if fed on polished rice 

 alone, remained in health when small amounts 

 of oryzanine were added to the diet, as little 

 as 0.3 gram per day being required for an 

 average-sized dog. The bran of other grains 

 and most vegetables were found to contain 

 oryzanine, or at least a substance with similar 

 therapeutic action, while milk, eggs, fish and 

 meat showed little or none, although the alco- 

 holic extract of fresh meat had some bene- 

 ficial effects on dogs. The authors state that 

 the experience of the Japanese in regulating 

 the dietary of their navy, for instance, con- 

 firms in every way the results of these studies, 

 in that beri-beri was stamped out only when 

 foods rich in oryzanine were introduced, and 

 feel justified in concluding that this sub- 

 stance is an absolute necessity for the main- 

 tenance of the health, not only of the lower 

 animals, but also of the human race. 



Many inferences might be drawn from these 

 results. They show, for instance, the reason 

 why graham bread is more desirable than 

 white, which has been urged by diet reformers 

 for many years, yet has been repeatedly ques- 

 tioned by scientists because no definite reason 

 could be given and because actual experiment 

 showed the white flour product to possess the 

 greater digestibility. They suggest, indeed, 

 that certain nervous troubles, which afflict the 

 civilized races in general and the United 

 States in particular, may have as at least a 

 contributing cause the extensive use of grains 

 from which the bran has been removed. But 

 most interesting of all they show that the 

 apparent inferior power of the Japanese and 

 other eastern races to resist such diseases as 

 beri-beri has nothing whatever to do with 

 their low-protein diet as such, but is caused 

 by their following the dictates of fashion and 

 making use of bran-free, polished riee, as 

 their staple article of diet. 



The evident inferiority of the races inhabit- 



ing India, which enables a mere handful of 

 British soldiers to keep them under control, 

 is very often referred to as evidence of the 

 inadequacy of the vegetarian — essentially low- 

 protein — dietary made use of by these peoples, 

 as a matter of religious observance. The 

 recent survey by the Eockefeller Sanitary 

 Commission has shown, however, that from 60 

 to 80 per cent, of the inhabitants of that 

 country are infected with the hookworm. 

 And as the degenerating influence of this 

 parasite on both the physical and intellectual 

 development of its victims is now so well 

 known that further discussion of it is un- 

 necessary, it would appear that we have herein 

 sufficient explanation of the status of these 

 races, without being obliged to assume that 

 their diet is faulty. 



With two of the supposedly most typical 

 illustrations of the unfavorable results of a 

 deficiency of protein in the dietary thus ex- 

 plained away, we are surely justified in in- 

 quiring, is there any evidence whatever that a 

 low-protein diet ever causes or aids in the 

 production of racial inferiority? 



Edgar T. Wherry 

 South Bethlehem, Pa. 



a ruling that is agadfst the rules 

 In the " Opinions rendered by the Interna- 

 tional Commission on zoological nomencla- 

 ture " ' Opinion 11 (p. lY) reads as follows : 



The ' ' Table des genres avec 1 'indication de 

 1 'esp6ce qui leur sert de type ' ' in Latreille 's 

 (1810) "considerations gfin^rales," should be ac- 

 cepted as designation of types of the genera in 

 question (Art. 30). 



The matter concerns the meaning of the 

 word type, as used by Latreille. Some au- 

 thors hold that Latreille could not have used 

 it in the modern sense of genotype, simply 

 because that particular meaning was entirely 

 unknown at this time. This view surely is 

 supported by common sense. 



But admitting that there was cause for con- 



> Smithsonian Inst. Publ. 1938, .July, 1910. 



