Emmett has recently opposed this view and suggests that while the
antineuritic factor and the growth factor are found in the same sources
and have much in common it does not follow that they are identical and
that his experiments tend to show that there are marked differences which
suggest that the "B" type is not a single entity but a group. Mitchell has
summarized very well the controversial phases of this question with an
impartial review of the facts. One of strongest of the opposition
arguments lies in the failure of milk to cure beri-beri except when
administered in large quantities. This objection has been partly allayed
by data bearing on the relation of the milk content to the food of the
cow. Hess, Dutcher, Hart and Steenbock and others have adduced sufficient
evidence to show that the vitamine content of the milk of a cow is largely
determined by the cow's food and as a consequence the milk may be very
poor in vitamine. It is obvious then that the failure of the milk to cure
beri-beri in a given case might be due to this cause and not to lack of
identity of the curative with the growth factor. Osborne and Mendel have
also shown that milk in general must not be classed among the rich sources
of the vitamine, even when the cow's food is rich in vitamine. The
principal facts in the controversy have been presented and at present the
evidence for regarding the vitamines identical seems to be preponderant.
Recently Auguste Lumiere in Paris has put forth the view that polyneuritis
is not merely a vitamine deficiency disease but a nutriment deficiency
disease. He reports that he fed birds on a starvation diet, but with
plenty of vitamine "B". These birds developed polyneuritis and were cured
by adding to the diet plenty of polished rice. The view he wishes us to
take is that all factors must be present and that the absence of the
nutriment is as important as the absence of the vitamine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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