122 



Scientific Proceedings (92). 



ranges of vital temperatures than in the lower. This indicates by 

 the method of the chemist that which the cytologist has long held, 

 namely, that the mitotic complex is something more than a sum 

 total of continuous and independent physiological actions; it is an 

 interrelated system of forces, vastly complex and which system 

 varies in its complex at each stage of mitotic progress. 



180 (1358) 



Diet and roughage in relation to the experimental scurvy of guinea 



pigs. 



By Barnett Cohen and Lafayette B. Mendel. 



[From the Sheffield Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Yale 

 University, New Haven, Conn.] 



It has been repeatedly demonstrated that exclusive diets of 

 cereals produce scurvy in the guinea pig. We have fed filter 

 paper, sawdust and hay respectively, as supplements to an oat diet 

 without averting the appearance of scurvy. Duration of the 

 disease and decline were not appreciably different when these 

 supplements were fed. The addition of 7, 10, or 18 per cent, of 

 paper pulp to a special soy bean diet 1 failed to supply an anti- 

 scorbutic property. 



Feeding raw milk in addition to oats induces marked consti- 

 pation with impaction of feces in the cecum. Animals fed 40 

 c.c. milk daily showed definite symptoms of scurvy in about a 

 month. As the daily allowance of milk was increased, the symp- 

 toms seemed to recede in severity. Yet even when 80 c.c. milk 

 were consumed daily, the animals became very constipated and 

 died; but there were scarcely any signs of scurvy. Autopsy of 

 such a case revealed absence of the typical macroscopic hemorr- 

 hages or of fragility of the bones. These observations appear to 

 confirm the findings of Chick, Hume and Skelton, 2 which indicate 

 that a sufficient amount of milk fed to guinea pigs will prevent 

 scurvy. Such observations render debatable the hypothesis that 



1 Barnett Cohen, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., April 17, 1918, p. 102. 

 1 Chick, Hume, and Skelton, The Lancet, Jan. 5, 1918. 



