^i. A, 2 Williams: Chemistry of the Vitamines 51 



polishings appears to affect the yield of curative sub- 

 stances considerably and have selected the raw material ac- 

 cordingly. Perhaps more suggestive is the idea which has 

 but recently occurred to me that rice polishings, like yeast " 

 may undergo an autolysis which splits the mother substances 

 of the vitamines in a different way than does acid hydrolysis. 

 Funk obtained his entire supply of rice polishings from the 

 Orient," and the bran was well aged before being submitted to 

 chemical manipulation. Here comparatively fresh material has 

 been used uniformly on account of the difficulty of protecting 

 it during storage from the attacks of insects which multiply 

 in it with tremendous rapidity. The presence of large quan- 

 tities of enzymes in rice polishings is readily demonstrable, as 

 there is rapid production of carbon dioxide from its suspensions 

 in water in the presence of sufficient formaldehyde or phenol 

 to prevent bacterial growth. 



In as much as Funk's descriptions of his chemical methods 

 have been so brief and incomplete as to puzzle me greatly, the 

 method as used by myself is recorded in detail, with notes on 

 the apparent discrepancies in results. 



Hope of isolating large quantities of an individual vitamine 

 from rice polishings having been abandoned, it was decided to 

 attempt the synthesis of curative substances, which might throw 

 light on the nature of the vitamines. As a discontinuance of 

 the work for the present is now necessary, the very incomplete 

 results are reported in the experimental part. 



In choosing the direction for a beginning in this work, the 

 facts adduced by Funk and others pointed to the pyridine ring 

 as the most promising nucleus. The most important facts in 

 favor of this choice are the occurrence of nicotinic acid with 

 the vitamine in several natural substances and the resistance 

 of the vitamine to the Kjeldahl method of digestion for the 

 determination of nitrogen. That this property of .the vitamine 

 is shared to the greatest degree by bodies containing the pyridine 

 ring has been shown by the as yet incompleted work of Doctor 

 Brill and Mr. Agcaoili of the Bureau of Science who have kindly 

 communicated their results to me. This resistance is well ex- 

 emplified by the method of Weidel and Murmann ^^ for preparing 

 pyridine sulphonic acids. 



"Cooper, Biochem. Journ. (1914), 8, 250; Abstract in Zentralbl. Bio- 

 chem. u. Biophysik. (1914), 17, 481. 



^^ Journ. Physiol. (1911-1912), 43, 400. 

 "Monat$h. /. Chem. (1895), 16, 749. 



