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The  Truth  About  Vitamines. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1920. 
It  is  extremely  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  what  part  of  our  subject 
is  indisputable  fact,  and  what  part  theory,  hypothesis,  or  guessing; 
otherwise  no  adequate  grasp  of  the  vit amine  theory  is  possible. 
In  an  actual  experiment — there  is  space  only  for  the  mention  of 
one^ — rats  were  fed  upon  a  mixture  of  caseinogen,  starch,  cane-sugar, 
lard,  and  inorganic  salts,  all  very  carefully  purified :  resulted  in  decline 
and  death.  Rats  were  then  fed  for  a  limited  period  on  this  "pure" 
diet;  decline  again  set  rapidly  in.  Then  a  small  allowance  of  milk 
was  added  each  day,  with  the  result  that  a  perfect  food  was  produced, 
and  the  animals  once  again  flourished. 
Enough  has  now  been  said  to  illustrate  the  lines  upon  which  ex- 
periments have  been  made.  Let  us  now  outline  the  conclusions 
arrived  at.  Certain  fats,  as  we  have  seen,  contain  "vitamines," 
and  such  fats  are  necessary  food  factors.  These  vitamines  are 
known  as  "A"  vitamines,  or  "fat-soluble"  vitamines.  But  there 
are  others.  There  is  "B"  vitamine,  or  "water-soluble"  vitamine, 
contained  markedly  in  yeast-extract,  for  example.  And  there  is  a 
third,  known  (somewhat  clumsily)  as  "anti-scorbutic"  vitamine, 
and  found  nowhere  so  abundantly  as  in  fresh  lemon  juice.  In  the 
light,  then,  of  our  present  knowledge,  we  may  say  that  the  whole 
truth  about  food-stuffs  is  contained  in  the  following  statement: 
Foods  necessary  and  sufficient  to  sustain  animal  life  contain,  in 
addition  to  proteins,  carbohydrates,  fats,  inorganic  salts  and  water, 
three  "vitamines"  known  as  A  (fat-soluble),  B  (water-soluble),  and 
C  (anti-scorbutic). 
Now  let  us,  with  all  possible  brevity,  give  some  account  of  the 
vitamine  content  of  the  foods  in  common  use — not,  of  course,  ex- 
haustively, but  only  for  the  sake  of  intelligibility.^  V.  A.  is  found 
in  butter,  cod-liver  oil,  suet,  fish  oil,  nut  butters  (which  nota  bene), 
lean  meat,  liver,  kidney,  sweet  breads,  fish  only  if  fat,  whole  milk 
dried  or  raw,  cheese,  eggs,  wheat  germ,  linseed,  haricot  beans,  cab- 
bage, lettuce,  spinach,  carrots,  raw  potatoes,  bananas,  nuts;  but 
not  in  vegetable  margarines  (N.  B.),  lard,  olive  oil,  cacao  butter, 
linseed  oil,  hardened  fats,  white  fish,  skim  milk,  polished  rice,  or 
meat  extracts. 
V.  B.  is  found  in  lean  meat,  liver,  kidney,  heart,  milk  (whole, 
skim,  raw,  or  dried),  eggs,  wheat,  peas,  cabbage,  lettuce,  spinach, 
carrots,  bananas,  nuts,  yeast  extract,  dried  yeast;  but  not  in  butter, 
1  In  what  follows  V.  A.  stands  for  fat-soluble  vitamine,  V.  B.  for  water-^ 
soluble  and  V.  C.  for  anti- scorbutic. 
