SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS 



Abstracts of Communications. 



One hundred third meeting. 



Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York City, December 

 17, 1919. President Calkins in the chair. 



28 (1488) 



The role of fat-soluble vitamine in the dietary of infants. 

 By Alfred F. Hess and Lester J. Unger. 



[From the State Laboratory, Department of Health, New York City.} 



It has been shown that the fat-soluble vitamine is an essential 

 constituent of the dietary of rats. There have also been clinical 

 reports attributing marked malnutrition in infants and children 

 to a lack of this dietary factor (Japan, Denmark). As a result of 

 these experiences it has been accepted that this vitamine is highly 

 important for man, and that the lack of it leads to nutritional 

 disorder in children. This has been emphasized all the more as 

 this vitamine is not nearly as widely distributed in nature as is the 

 water-soluble vitamine. In order to study this question five 

 infants, varying in age from 5 to 12 months, were given a diet 

 which was complete except for a very small amount of fat-soluble 

 vitamine. It consisted of 180 g. daily of highly skimmed milk 

 (Krystalak 0.2 per cent, fat), 30 g. of cane sugar, 15 to 30 g. of 

 autolyzed yeast (to supply water-soluble vitamine), 15 c.c. of 

 orange juice, 30 g. of cottonseed oil, and cereal for the older infants. 



On this diet the children have done well for a period of eight 

 to nine months. They have shown no anemia, no eye trouble, 

 no bone changes, as seen by the X-ray, nor has their growth in 

 length or in weight suffered. We believe, therefore, that either a 

 very small amount of this vitamine suffices to supply the needs 

 of human nutrition, or that this deficiency has to be maintained 



49 



