ROBBINS : VITAMINS 125 



estimating the quantity of various vitamins, in indicating how vitamins work 

 in the animal and in leading investigators to the discovery of new vitamins. 

 Pantothenic acid, paraamino-benzoic acid, inositol and biotin were all dis- 

 covered through their effects on plants before they were known to have any 

 influence on animals. 



Entirely aside from the practical importance of using plants to increase 

 our knowledge of a class of substances so important for animals, or of using 

 the substances themselves to influence and modify the development of plants, 

 it should help to reestablish self-respect in the human race at the present 

 moment in world history, to learn that in certain fundamental ways we re- 

 semble the innocent and harmless yeast plant. The same vitamins are con- 

 cerned in the development of yeast as in the growth of man and they probably 

 perform the same functions in both organisms. 



And so science weaves a magic carpet of Bagdad which can carry us over 

 the mountains and through the jungles which once impeded and entangled the 

 footsteps of the seeker for knowledge. Threads from far oft' China, a bit of 

 material from Java, some from all the world are woven in its woof. There 

 are times when it is necessary to unravel a bit of the weaving unsuited to the 

 pattern, but in the end the carpet is woven, and with its aid you can scale 

 heights which neither Liebig nor Pasteur could surmount. 



The New York Botanical Garden 

 New, York, New York 



