6i8 
Antiscorbutics. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.  1919. 
The  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  distribution  of  antiscorbutic 
vitamins  has  been  accentuated  by  the  needs  of  infant  feeding.  The 
use  of  cow's  milk  pasteurized  at  a  temperature  as  low  as  63 0  C. 
(145.40  F.)  for  thirty  minutes  has  led  in  the  course  of  several 
months  to  milk  outbreaks  of  infantile  scurvy,4  thus  indicating  the 
poverty  of  heated  milks  in  the  antiscorbutic  vitamin.  Only  recently 
Hart,  Steenbock  and  Smith  have  demonstrated  at  the  University  of 
Wisconsin  that  milk  sterilized  at  1200  C.  for  ten  minutes,  commer- 
cial unsweetened  condensed  milk,  and  the  commercial  milk  powder 
examined  had  lost  their  antiscorbutic  properties  when  used  in  quan- 
tities equivalent  to  an  amount  of  raw  milk  which  would  prevent 
scurvy  in  guinea  pigs  on  a  diet  of  rolled  oats  and  dried  hay.  From 
such  citations  it  becomes  evident  why  investigators  of  infant  feeding 
have  sought  sources  of  antiscorbutics  and  why  producers  of  food 
preparations  are  concerned  with  the  retention  of  native  antiscor- 
butic potency  so  far  as  this  is  possible.  Recent  writers2  have  sanely 
summarized  the  situation  by  saying  that  either  the  results  with 
guinea  pigs  on  experimental  scurvy  should  not  be  translated  to  in- 
fantile scurvy,  or  we  should  follow  the  wiser  course  of  using  some 
antiscorbutic  in  conjunction  with  the  exclusive  use  in  infant  feed 
of  such  heated  milk  products  as  have  been  described. 
Thanks  to  the  labor  of  a  number  of  investigators  both  here  and 
abroad,  the  pediatrician  is  no  longer  limited  to  the  conventional 
orange  juice  in  his  efforts  to  avert  scurvy  in  infants.  Reference  has 
been  made  in  The  Journal  to  some  of  the  novelties,  such  as  the 
raw  juice  of  the  swede  and  the  tomato,  which  are  also  available  for 
human  nutrition.  Although  the  antiscorbutic  value  of  fruit  juices 
was  recognized  three  hundred  years  ago,  Alice  Henderson  Smith,5 
of  the  Lister  Institute  in  London,  has  upset  the  traditional  faith  in 
lime  juice,  as  the  result  of  her  historical  studies.  It  appears  that 
the  juice  used  with  good  effect  in  the  olden  days  was  in  reality  ob- 
E.  B.,  Steenbock,  H.,  and  Smith,  D.  W. :  Studies  of  Experimental  Scurvy : 
Effect  of  Heat  on  the  Antiscorbutic  Properties  of  Some  Milk  Products,  /. 
Biol,  Chem.,  38:  305  (June),  1919. 
4  Hess,  A.  F.,  and  Fish,  Mildred :  Infantile  Scurvy :  The  Blood,,  the  Blood 
Vessels  and  the  Diet,  Am.  J.  Dis.  Child.,  8:  385  (Dec),  1914.  Hess,  A.  F. : 
Infantile  Scurvy,  III,  Its  Influence  on  Growth  (Length  and  Weight),  ibid., 
12:  152  (Aug.),  1916. 
5  Smith,  A.  H. :  A  Historical  Inquiry  into  the  Efficacy  of  Lime  Juice  for 
the  Prevention  and  Cure  of  Scurvy,  /.  Royal  Army  Med.  Corps,  Feb.  and 
Mar.,  1919;  Lancet,  2:  725  (Nov.  30),  1918. 
