238 
The  V  it  amines. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1914. 
compound  with  the  added  distinction  of  being  necessary  to  life. 
Casimir  Funk  of  London  has  been  one  of  the  foremost  contributors 
to  the  development  of  this  conception  and  a  valuable  summary  of 
his  own  work  and  his  judgment  of  the  work  of  others  may  be  found 
in  the  Ergebnisse  der  Physiologie,  Vol.  XIII,  pp.  124-205.  (Wies- 
baden, 1913.)    This  article  is  the  chief  source  of  the  present  abstract. 
A  class  of  serious  disorders  has  long  been  known  in  which 
failure  of  nutrition  could  be  named  as  the  cardinal  fact  in  the  case 
and  in  which  it  has  somewhat  vaguely  been  assumed  that  the  diet 
must  be  at  fault.  The  most  familiar  disturbance  of  this  class,  at 
least  to  the  general  reader,  has  probably  been  scurvy.  The  chronicles 
of  exploring  expeditions  in  polar  regions  have  contained  many  har- 
rowing accounts  of  the  ravages  of  this  disease.  It  has  usually  been 
associated  with  the  consumption  of  a  monotonous  ration,  deficient 
in  fresh  vegetables  and  often  containing  a  great  deal  of  salted  or 
canned  food.  Certain  supplementary  articles  of  diet,  such  as  onions, 
limes,  and  lemons,  have  been  credited  with  some  power  to  ward  off 
or  at  least  to  mitigate  the  trouble  and  they  have  been  spoken  of 
as  antiscorbutics. 
The  victims  of  scurvy  suffer  from  severe  prostration,  loosening 
of  the  teeth,  intense  soreness  of  the  gums,  friability  of  the  bones, 
and  a  tendency  to  haemorrhage  partly  due  to  a  loss  of  the  coagulating 
property  of  the  blood.  Those  who  have  read  the  classic  journals  of 
Doctor  Kane  will  recall  the  distressing  situation  on  board  his  ship 
at  the  end  of  the  Arctic  winter  and  the  commander's  device  to 
cheer  his  helpless  men  in  the  forecastle  by  setting  up  a  mirror  to 
bring  into  their  midst  the  first  sunbeam  from  the  southern  horizon. 
Scurvy  has  become  less  common  with  better  supplies  of  food  avail- 
able for  such  parties,  but  it  has  been  noted  within  a  very  few  years. 
Another  disorder  which  has  lately  attracted  much  attention  is 
beri-beri.  It  has  its  recognized  centre  in  the  East,  particularly  in 
Japan,  China,  Indo-China,  and  the  Philippines.  Its  occurrence  in 
Newfoundland  has  recently  been  reported.  Those  who  suffer  from 
beri-beri  are  usually  the  very  poor  and,  in  the  Orient  at  least,  they 
are  people  who  live  chiefly  upon  rice.  In  Japan  the  disease  has  been 
nearly  eliminated  from  the  army  and  navy  by  providing  more  liberal 
and  varied  rations.  The  symptoms  are  complex,  but  they  are  in 
general  such  as  can  be  referred  to  the  impairment  of  the  nerves, 
which  is  known  to  be  the  most  prominent  physical  change.  There 
is  a  period  of  declining  weight  and  strength  and  this  is  followed  by 
