THE STORY OF LIME-JUICE AND SCURVY 235 



" rickets " in young animals. Certain fats of animal origin 

 (milk) and green leaves contain it in minute quantity, and 

 are necessary for the life of young animals and for the 

 health of adults. 



The third vitamine recognized is the anti-scorbutic, 

 the factor which prevents scurvy. It is found in fresh 

 vegetable tissues, and to a less extent in fresh animal 

 tissues. Its richest sources are cabbage, swedes, turnips, 

 lettuce, water-cress, and such fruits as lemons, oranges, 

 raspberries, and tomatoes ; other vegetables have a less 

 value. Fresh milk and meat possess a definite but low 

 anti-scorbutic value. This vitamine (I am quoting the 

 report of the Committee, which has been issued to our 

 military, naval, and medical administrators and famine- 

 relief- workers throughout the world) suffers destruction 

 when the fresh food-stuffs containing it are subjected 

 to heat, or drying, as methods of preservation. It is 

 habitually destroyed and wasted by stewing fresh vegetables 

 with meat for two or three hours. All dry food-stuffs, 

 such as cereals, pulses, dried vegetables and dried milk, 

 are deficient in anti-scorbutic properties ; so also are 

 tinned vegetables and tinned meat — hence the disgust to 

 which they soon give rise ! 



The explanation of the mystery about lime-juice 

 (which a hundred years ago was used with absolute 

 success to prevent scurvy, and in 1875 was a dead failure) 

 is shown by the workers at the Lister Institute to be this 

 — namely, "lime" and "lemon" are in origin the same 

 word, and have become applied in ways unrecognized by 

 the Admiralty and their medical advisers in various parts 

 of the world to which the citron, the lemon, the sweet- 

 lime and the sour-lime — all varieties of one species, Citrus 

 medica of Linnaeus — have been carried from their original 

 home of origin, the south-east of Asia. The original 

 effective and valuable u lime- juice" of the eighteenth 



