Am.  Jour.  Phafin. ) 
July,  1920.  ) 
The  Truth  About  Vitamines. 
469 
cream,  olive  oil,  white  flour,  custard  powders,  pea  flour,  or  meat 
extracts. 
V.  C.  is  contained  in  lean  meat,  liver,  raw  milk,  whether  whole 
or  skim,  germinated  pulses,  cabbage  fresh  or  cooked,  fresh  juice  of 
the  Swede,  carrots,  cooked  potatoes,  fresh  beans,  lemon  juice  fresh 
or  preserved,  lime  juice  only  if  fresh,  orange  juice,  raspberries, 
apples,  tomatoes;  hut  not  in  preserved  lime  juice  (N.  B.)  nor  in  yeast, 
meat  extracts,  tinned  meats,  eggs,  wheat,  white  flour,  custard  pow- 
ders, dried  peas,  nor  in  any  oils  animal  or  vegetable. 
The  only  food,  apparently,  rich  in  all  three  vitamines  is  the 
humble  cabbage  (fresh);  while  white  wheaten  flour,  pure  corn- 
flour, and  polished  rice  contain  no  vitamines  whatsoever,  and  the 
same  thing  is  true,  alas,  of  beer. 
It  has  long  been  known  that  the  cause  of  scurvy  was  the  lack  of 
fresh  vegetables  and  fruit,  and  to  a  smaller  extent  of  fresh  meat. 
To-day  we  say,  with  an  effort  of  greater  precision,  that  scurvy  owes 
its  incidence  to  want  of  vitamine  C,  the  anti-scorbutic  vit amine. 
Attempts  have  been  made  to  investigate  this  question  quantita- 
tively as  well  as  qualitatively.  Thus  it  has  been  shown  that  by 
removing  green  stuff  from  the  diet  of  guinea-pigs  and  feeding  them 
on  grain  and  water  only,  scurvy,  with  its  characteristic  features  of 
hemorrhage  and  bone-changes,  was  induced,  and  from  it  the  animals 
died  in  from  twenty  to  forty  days.  Similarly  scurvy  was  prevented, 
or  cured,  by  the  addition  to  the  grain  and  water  diet  of  fresh  cabbage, 
carrot,  cranberries,  sorrel,  or  dandelion  leaves.  Then  the  anti- 
scorbutic potency  of  various  food-stuffs  was  ascertained — only 
roughly,  of  course — ^by  determining  the  minimum  quantities  which 
had  to  be  added  to  the  grain  and  water  diet  so  as  just  to  prevent 
scurvy.  In  this  way  it  has  been  found  that  for  guinea-pigs — and, 
it  is  inferred,  for  the  human  subject  also  anti-scorbutic  food-stuffs, 
may  be  classified  as  follows  in  decending  order  of  value : 
1.  Raw  cabbage,  fresh  lemon  juice,  fresh  orange  juice  (greatest 
value) . 
2.  Runner  beans,  juice  of  Swedes. 
3.  Germinated  lentils,  cooked  cabbage,  preserved  lemon  juice, 
fresh  lime  juice. 
4.  Carrot  juice,  beetroot  juice,  onion,  cooked  potato. 
5.  Grapes,  apples,  tamarind,  mango,  kokum,  meat  juice,  raw 
milk  (smallest  positive  value). 
6.  Grain  (whole),  gum,  bran,  polished  rice,  whole  dry  pulses. 
