Am.  Tour.  Pharm. 
July,  1 918. 
Vit amines. 
507 
and  college  training  in  the  sciences  and  arts,  which  a  pharmacist 
must  know,  can  be  of  exceptional  value  to  the  service. 
I  have  spoken  only  concerning  some  of  the  duties  on  board  ship 
and  at  sea.  How  much  greater  must  be  the  necessity  for  trained 
pharmacists  at  a  naval  hospital  where  dispensing  and  laboratory  and 
pharmaceutical,  chemical,  bacteriological  and  biological  work  are  in- 
dispensable. 
Pharmacists  have  been  drafted  into  the  national  army  as  privates 
and  are  now  being  called  upon  to  exercise  their  knowledge,  gained 
by  hard  study  and  the  expense  of  a  college  training.  Is  not  this 
practically  the  same  as  drafting  a  profession?  No  other  profession 
has  been  made  to  use  their  knowledge  in  this  manner  without  some 
previous  consideration  in  the  way  of  a  commission  or  better  pay. 
If  the  pharmacist  is  capable  of  doing  such  work  as  that  men- 
tioned here  is  he  not  also  capable  and  worthy  of  a  rank  that  wdll 
make  his  work  authoritative? 
VITAMINES.1 
By  Prof.  W.  Ramsden. 
(Abstract.) 
It  has  been  discovered  during  the  last  twenty  years  that  animals 
as  various  as  pigeons,  fowls,  rats,  pigs,  and  man,  if  fed  exclusively 
on  polished  rice,  develop  the  disease  known  as  beri-beri,  character- 
ized by  serious  changes  in  the  peripheral  nerves,  and  that  a  water, 
or  90  per  cent,  alcohol,  extract  of  the  rice-polishings  contains  a  sub- 
stance of  which  very  minute  quantities  prevent  or  cure  the  disease. 
By  careful  and  laborious  experiments  with  rice  and  other  diets 
it  has  been  shown  that  this  substance  is  widely  spread  in  the  com- 
mon foodstuffs  and  that  its  presence  is  essential  for  life.  Attempts 
to  isolate  it  in  a  pure  state  in  sufficient  quantity  for  chemical  inves- 
tigation have  not  hitherto  been  completely  successful,  but  enough 
has  been  ascertained  to  make  certain  that  it  is  neither  a  protein,  fat, 
nor  carbohydrate,  nor  indeed  any  of  the  known  constituents  of 
plants  or  animals.  It  is  free  from  phosphorus,  insoluble  in  absolute 
alcohol,  ether,  benzene,  acetone,  or  oils,  soluble  in  water  or  90  per 
1  From  the  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Chemical  Industry,  February,  1918. 
