588  Standardisation  of  Medicinal  Products.  {  Am^e0pY\^rm- 
variable  quality,  almost  discredited  the  drug  as  a  therapeutic  agent. 
The  question  may  logically  be  asked  why  chemical  tests  should  not 
be  applied  to  standardize  medicinal  substances.  In  reply  to  this,  it 
may  be  sufficient  to  say  that  pharmacologic  standardization  (vivisec- 
tion in  one  of  its  broader  aspects)  is  applied  only  where  the  active 
agent  is  of  such  a  character  that  chemical  tests  cannot  be  applied. 
It  is  a  more  expensive  and  a  less  accurate  means  of  standardization 
and  in  no  case  will  be  retained  after  an  accurate  chemical  test  has 
been  developed. 
Pellagra,  scurvy,  beri  beri  and  some  other  less  well-marked  dis- 
eases of  undernourishment,  have  to  a  large  extent,  been  of  necessity 
studied  on  human  subjects.  In  that  way  observers  have  learned  that 
certain  foods  are  essential  but  that  certain  forms  of  food  seem 
deficient  in  nourishment.  In  one  historic  instance  a  group  of  Dr. 
Goldberger's  assistants — 16  in  all,  of  whom  13  were  physicians — 
voluntarily  submitted  themselves  to  experiments  in  order  to  demon- 
strate whether  the  symptoms  of  pellagra  could  be  reproduced  by 
any  method  of  infection.  The  materials  used  were  blood,  naso- 
pharyngeal secretions,  epidermal  scales  from  skin  lesions,  urine  and 
feces.  These  were  administered  by  injections,  by  application  to  the 
muscosa  of  nose  and  pharynx,  and  by  mouth.  The  evidence  while 
negative  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  disease  is  one  due  to  faulty 
diet.  Assuming  that  a  corrected  diet  will  eliminate  one  of  the  worst 
scourges  of  the  South,  who  will  deny  that  these  physiological  ex- 
periments were  worth  while  ?  On  the  same  principle  and  even  with 
greater  humaneness,  the  use  of  animals  is  to  be  commended  wher- 
ever such  use  is  possible. 
The  development  of  vitamines  is  another  triumph  in  which 
physiological  studies  have  suggested  the  introduction  of  a  valuable 
therapeutic  agent.  By  experiments  on  pigeons,  rats  and  guinea  pigs, 
it  is  possible  to  demonstrate  a  life  process  which  could  be  only  in- 
ferred from  observations  on  humans,  to  prove  that  certain  foods  are 
deficient  although  supposedly  containing  all  the  essential  constitu- 
ents. In  scurvy,  the  lacking  factor  is  found  in  certain  fresh  foods 
or  in  lemon  or  lime  juice;  in  pellagra,  it  is  apparently  in  part  the 
substance  in  the  shell  or  germ  of  the  corn  which  is  removed  in  mill- 
ing; in  beri  beri,  it  is  a  loss  of  the  substance  removed  in  polishing 
rice,  or  in  certain  conditions  occurring  when  foods  are  prepared. 
In  humans,  the  disease  is  slowly  developed  and  responds  only 
