Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.  1919. 
Antiscorbutics. 
617 
The  invention  of  simple  processes  of  color  photography  has 
been  of  great  assistance  in  putting  on  record  the  appearance  of  the 
microscopic  field  and  enabling  it  to  be  shown  by  means  of  the 
ordinary  projecting  lantern.  The  effects  of  polarized  light  are 
especially  brilliant,  and  the  colors  are  essential  in  many  cases  for 
differentiation.  Many  members  of  the  section  will  recall  the  series 
of  photomicrographs  in  color  that  I  showed  at  the  summer  meeting 
at  Swarthmore  some  years  ago,  although  the  vividness  of  the 
demonstration  was  seriously  impaired  by  the  inferiority  of  the 
projecting  lantern. 
A  field  that  seems  to  promise  much,  but  has  not  yet  been  worked 
to  any  extent  by  the  chemist,  is  the  use  of  ultra-violet  and  infra- 
red light  for  differentiation  substances.  In  the  case  of  the  former, 
photomicrography  must  be  used,  as  the  ultra-violet  rays  are  in- 
visible  to  the  human  eyes,  and  very  injurious  to  it. 
ANTISCORBUTICS:1  I. 
Ever  since  Hoist  and  Frohlich2  asserted,  in  191 2,  that  the  anti- 
scorbutic property  of  certain  fresh  vegetables  and  fruits  may  be  to 
a  large  extent  lost  when  they  are  subjected  to  a  high  temperature 
or  are  dried,  students  of  nutrition  have  been  more  alert  to  the  pos- 
sible effects  of  culinary  processes  on  some  of  the  less  understood 
properties  of  foods.  Although,  as  has  already  been  discussed  in 
these  columns,  McCollum  and  his  colleagues  have  assumed  that 
scurvy  is  a  disease  related  to  intestinal  putrefaction  and  the  reten- 
tion of  feces,  the  concordant  opinion  of  other  recent  investigators,, 
notably  Givens,  Hart,  Hess,  Mendel,  Steenbock  and  their  co-workers 
in  this  country,  and  Chick,  Harden  and  their  collaborators  in  Eng- 
land, has  substantiated  the  earlier  view  that  the  disease  is  the  result 
of  a  deficiency  of  some  nutritive  factor  in  the  diet.  From  this 
standpoint  we  may  speak  of  the  lack  of  an  antiscorbutic  vitamin, 
just  as  the  lack  of  an  antineuritic  vitamin  is  postulated  in  the  genesis 
of  polyneuritis.3 
1  From  the  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Asso.,  July  26,  1919. 
2  Hoist  and  Frolich  :  Ztschr.  f.  Hyg.,  72:  1,  1912;  75:  334,  1913. 
3  Hess,  A.  F.,  and  Unger,  L.  J. :  Scurvy,  VIII :  Factors  Affecting  the  Anti- 
scorbutic Value  of  Food,  Am.  J.  Dis.  Child.,  17:  221  (April),  1919.  Hart, 
