YITAMINES IN HONEY 
865 
essential nutrients except the water-solu¬ 
ble B vitamine, in which it was deficient. 
Another group was fed the same diet except 
that a blended extracted honey was added 
to it. Still another group was fed the same 
diet with the exception of extracted clover 
honey added. 
These two latter diets were known to con¬ 
tain no water-soluble vitamines except such 
as might be contained in the honey. The 
individual rats in these groups were care¬ 
fully weighed each week and records kept of 
their weights. 
At the end of four weeks the diets were 
changed so that the rats of group 1, which 
had received no honey, were subdivided into 
two groups, half of which received blended 
honey and the other half white clover hon¬ 
ey. The rats of the other two groups, which 
had been receiving honey, now had this re¬ 
placed by a starch. 
After another two weeks another change 
in diet was made, which consisted in re¬ 
placing all these previous food mixtures by 
milk, which was known to be adequate for 
growth and to contain water-soluble B. 
This was to show that failure to grow had 
been due to a dietary deficiency and not to 
disease or other accidental causes. 
Now as to results: None of the rats on 
these three diets first mentioned was able 
to thrive and grow in a normal manner, and 
therefore all three diets were deficient in 
the water-soluble vitamine. Apparently, 
therefore, neither the blended honey nor 
the white clover honey contained sufficient 
water-soluble B to permit normal growth 
when they were present in the diet, nor to 
permit the resumption of normal growth 
when they were added to a diet containing 
none of this vitamine. 
However, while the addition of extracted 
honey to the diet did not permit normal 
growth it did slightly increase the growth, 
so that at the end of five weeks, in the case 
of one group there was a difference of 9 
grams between the “starch rats” and the 
“honey rats”; in the other group the dif¬ 
ference between the “starch rats” and the 
“honey rats” was 17 grams in favor of the 
honey. 
To quote Professor Hawk’s own words, 
“The differences were not great enough to 
be entirely conclusive, but may most reason¬ 
ably be considered to indicate the slightly 
28 
greater efficiency of honey for growth, due 
to the presence of small amounts of the 
water-soluble vitamine.” 
The experiments to determine the pres¬ 
ence of the fat-soluble A vitamine were 
conducted in much the same manner, ex¬ 
cept that in this case comb honey was also 
used in the feeding experiments. Profes¬ 
sor Hawk further says: “Of the eight rats 
fed comb honey, all but one showed a ces¬ 
sation of decline and distinct gains in 
weight. The one rat was apparently beyond 
recovery by dietary change. In fact, all 
the rats given comb honey were already 
showing indications of the dietary deficien¬ 
cy. Comb honey showed a resumption of 
growth in these animals, indicating the 
presence of distinct amounts of fat-solu¬ 
ble A. 
“For comparison the comb honey diet 
was followed by one containing butter in 
amounts of 5 to 10 per cent. Butter is 
known to be rich in the fat-soluble vita¬ 
mine. Hence, the fact that the rats grew 
about as well on comb honey as where 5 per 
cent of butter was added indicates that 
comb honey contains a moderate amount of 
fat-soluble vitamine, and that the comb is 
relatively rich.” 
These rats, like the first groups, were 
later fed milk to show that any failure to 
grow had been solely due to a dietary de¬ 
ficiency. 
Extracted honey, added to a diet known 
to be deficient in fat-soluble A, showed a 
slight gain in weight in some of the rats, 
but hardly enough to be conclusive. How¬ 
ever, Professor Hawk says, “That a mini¬ 
mal amount of fat-soluble A may be pres¬ 
ent in extracted honey would be indicated 
further by the fact that our data show it to 
be present in comb honey.” 
The reader should turn to the accompany¬ 
ing diagram, study it carefully and see if 
it isn’t enough to make a colony of bees 
buzz with pride. . 
Reference has been made to his finding 
the vitamine water-soluble B in extracted 
honey and the vitamine fat-soluble A in 
comb honey, and it will now be in order to 
tell of his experiments as to the digesti¬ 
bility of honey and then say something 
more about vitamines. 
The experiments were carried out upon 
a normal man to determine the influence of 
