Am.  Tour.  Phnrm.  \ 
July,  i2i8.  J 
Vita  mines. 
509 
bean  oils)  and  margarines  made  from  them.  It  is  present,  although 
apparently  in  small  amount  only,  in  the  (entire)  seed  of  wheat, 
oats,  maize,  hemp,  rye,  and  cottonseed. 
There  are  strong  reasons  for  believing  that  lack  of  yet  a  third 
vitamine  or  sitacoid  is  mainly  responsible  for  the  disease  known  as 
scurvy.  This  anti-scorbutic  substance  is  remarkable  in  that  although 
surviving  ordinary  cooking  operations  it  usually  fails  to  survive  slow 
drying  or  long  "  preservation  "  of  the  food  in  which  it  is  contained. 
It  is  present  in  all  fresh  vegetables,  fruit,  or  meat.  It  is  rarely  or 
never  present  in  dried  vegetables.  It  is  absent  or  inadequate  in 
amount  in  dried  seeds,  but  it  is  present  in  seeds,  e.  g.,  barley,  peas, 
which  have  just  been  allowed  to  germinate  (Furst,  Weill  and  Mouri- 
quand,  Miss  Chick). 
McCollum's  observation  that  guinea  pigs  on  a  diet  of  oats  do 
not  get  scurvy  if  given  laxatives  is  explicable  on  the  assumption  that 
the  anti-scorbutic  substance  is  essential  for  the  normal  functioning 
of  the  intestine. 
The  table  given  below  indicates  some  of  the  commoner  foods  in 
which  one  or  more  of  the  three  vitamines  have  been  definitely  proved 
present  or  absent.  The  feeding  experiments  necessary  for  each 
such  proof  are  time-consuming  and  demand  very  many  precautions. 
Anything  like  exact  comparisons  is  at  present  impossible,  and  the 
number  of  plus  signs  in  the  table  indicates  merely  the  general  im- 
pression conveyed  by  the  different  observers. 
Anti-Beri-beri. 
Anti- 
Xerophthalmia. 
Anti-Scurvy. 
Egg-yo'k  
+  +  +  + 
+  +  +  + 
O 
Milk  (cow's)2  
+ 
+  + 
+ 
Butter  
little  or  none 
+  +  +  + 
0 
Whole  meal  wheat  flour  
+  + 
little  or  none 
0 
White  wheat  flour  
0 
little  or  none 
0 
Potatoes  
+ 
++ 
Cabbage   
+  + 
+  +  + 
+++ 
■     +  + 
very  little 
0 
++ 
Dried  soya  bean,  millet,  and  linseed  
+  + 
+  + 
0 
Fresh  meat  and  fish  
+  • 
+ 
+ 
0 
0 
0 
+  +  + 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Margarine : 
from  animal  fats  
0 
+  + 
0 
from  vegetable  fats  
0 
0 
0 
+  +  +  + 
little 
0 
-  Milk  vitamine-content  depends  largely  on  the  mother's  diet. 
