NEW LIGHT ON VITAMINES.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 269, 3 January 1929, Page 3

NEW LIGHT ON VITAMINES.

PRESENT THEORIES CHALLENGED. j ■ i Vitamins, which have for years been the playboys of the Eastern and the Western medical worlds, have now be- j come suspect, says the medical cor- ; respondent of the Lcndon Morning j Post. ■ ■ Without any names by which to identify them, ttiey were known, | somewhat as convicts, as Vitamins A,' B, C and D. j Its own special function was assigned to each one. Vitamin O was recognised to be present in fats and, more particularly in cod liver oil, fish roe and liver, and was regarded as j essentials for growth, fertility and j resistance to infection from diseases, i Vitemin B, present notably in ger- j minating seeds, came into prominence ] chiefly in connection with heri-beri, I when it was established that this ] disease was caused as a result of the 1 removal of the vitamin by the polish- j ing of rice. Vitamin C is present in most juicy fruits and vegetables, and, as Caphain Cook discovered, if these are abduring the war. The boy averred that he had seen his. brother twice, and | sent from diet, scurvy results. Vihamin D which is one of the essential principles of cod liver oil, prevents rickets and can be obtained artificially by treating such bodies as the important brain constituent cholesterol hy solar or similar radiation. Somewhat of a bombshell —as far, at least, as the general public is concerned—has been dropped into this new garden of science that was steadily being weeded and tidied up, the chief bomb thrower being Dr Mellanby, of Sheffield, who a short time ago was awarded the gold medal of the British Medical Association. The vitamins- apparently do not altogether work according to plan. Vitamin D, for instance, according .to- a paper written by Dr Mellanby and Dr Green in the British Medical Journal, is no longer to be regarded as responsible for increasing the power of the blood to) kill germs. This function, it is stated, belongs to Vitamin A, which is promoted to be the David thafl preserves us from Goliaths, such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

The trouble, as tie Medical Research Council pointed out some time ] ago, is that vitamin A is by no means J omnipresent. It is io. be found, how- | ever, in the fatty substances of the i liver of the salmon and halibut, the j grouse and the goose and other birds, i and also in the liver fats of the sheep, the calf and the ox —Sheep and ox liver fat containing, for instance, ten | times as much vitamin A as a good | sample of butiter. | The disorder introduced into the i vitamin world, however, hardly comes as a surprise to experts, and has al- | ready been anticipated. The whole research work done on the vitamins ) has been a miracle of what can perhaps best be descr.bed as inductive chemistry. A vitamin has never been isolated in the sense that iti could be handled or seen and its importance j has been realised only by its fruits. ! If vitamin D now has to give place | to vitamin A as the infection resisting I factor this will not perturb the ex--1 perts, who, however, will still insist ! on the importance of a well balance j diet in which all vitamins are pre- ' sent.