XI, B, 3 Gibson and Concepcion: Development of Neuritis 121 



neuritis in a short time, while the remaining two were healthy- 

 after two months. One of us ^° has fed fowls daily 20 cubic 

 centimeters of normal human milk along with polished rice ; the 

 birds developed typical neuritis. Cooper " found that 35 cubic 

 centimeters of cows' milk given with polished rice to pigeons 

 merely delayed the appearance of the neuritis. Funk and 

 Macallum -^ claim to have shown chemically the presence of vita- 

 mine in milk. 



It would seem that antineuritic properties, if present in milk, 

 exist only in very small amounts. In none of the experiments 

 mentioned above has milk prevented the development of neuritis. 

 Accordingly our work has been directed to ascertain by feeding 

 experiments whether or not antineuritic substances were present 

 in milk and to what extent these would be affected by auto- 

 claving the milk for two hours at 125°C. The first observations 

 were made on fowls; subsequently experiments were carried on 

 with young dogs and pigs. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH FOWLS 



Three well-grown young male fowls were fed 40 grams of 

 polished rice and were given by hand 100 cubic centimeters of 

 fresh cows' milk daily, A second set of three fowls received 

 40 grams of polished rice and 100 cubic centimeters of the same 

 milk, which had been autoclaved at 125°C. for two hours. Rice, 

 not consumed by the fowls, was fed by hand. The experiment 

 is summarized in Table I. 



Table I. — Fowls fed on fresh and autoclaved milk. 



[The fowls received 100 cubic centimeters of milk and 40 grams of rice daily.] 



Fowl 

 No. 



Milk. 



Neuritis. 



Gain. 



Remarks. 



1 

 2 

 3 



4 

 5 

 6 



Fresh 



Days. 

 31 

 31 



86 



62 



Grams. 

 319 

 235 

 353 



500 

 166 

 168 



A slight spasticity was observed in- 

 termittently from the thirty-first 

 day. 



Died on the thirty-sixth day. 



do _ . 



do 





do 



do 



31 





The experiment shows that the administration of 100 cubic 

 centimeters of fresh cows' milk daily did not prevent the develop- 



" Gibson, ibid. (1913), 8, 469. 



"Journ. Hyg. (1913), 7, 268; ibid. (1914), 14, 12. 



"Biochem. Journ. (1914), 7, 356; Journ. Chem. Sac. (1914), 104, II, 805. 



