Years were spent in investigation before it was found out that beriberi, a disease of the Orient, could be cured and prevented by the addition, to the diet, of certain nutritive elements in the covering of the rice, that are ordinarily removed in the polishing process, and thrown away. Just what these nutritive elements were, was not understood; but the fact remained that a diet of polished rice resulted in symptoms of beriberi, while a diet of the unpolished grain was sufficient to prevent any manifestations of the disease. In Java, where the people lived largely on whole rice, beriberi was unknown. For years, the fact had been recognized, that sailors living on canned and preserved foods sooner or later developed scurvy, which could be quickly cured by an addition of fresh vegetables or the juice of fruits, especially lemons and oranges, to the diet. In 1535, when all but three of Cartier's one hundred ten sailors had scurvy, he cured them all by giving them a decoction of fresh pine needles. Babies fed on Pasteurized milk often develop infantile scurvy.
Convincing Experiments
Vitamines are made only in nature's laboratory. The body cannot make them, therefore mother's milk is deficient in vitamine if her diet is. This is demonstrated in a decided way in the Philippine Islands, where the diet is deficient in the vitamine preventing beriberi. Among the Filipinos, one half the deaths take place before the end of the first year of age; and in these infants, one half the deaths are due to beriberi. Pellagra, a disease of obscure ætiology, or cause, manifests itself principally among a class of people who live on a monotonous diet of corn bread, bacon, soda biscuit, and sirup. Some authorities are quite convinced that it is a "deficiency" disease. Also rickets, eczema, pyorrhea, and a number of other diseases of obscure cause are beginning to be regarded as being, in part at least, deficiency diseases. A predisposition to tuberculosis and other infections may be of similar cause. There are probably a number, possibly many, of these vitamine substances. At least two have been quite fully demonstrated,—the one preventing scurvy, and the one preventing beriberi.
The experiments of Cosimir Funk, a Russian, are convincing. He was able to produce experimental beriberi in pigeons by feeding them for three weeks on polished rice, then readily to cure them of the disease by feeding the polishings from the same rice, showing that in the rice polishings are certain elements absolutely essential to life. He finally isolated what appeared to be this substance, one pound of the polishings yielding about three grains of the material. Injecting under the skin of pigeons dying of beriberi one third of a grain of this crystalline substance, he was able not only to make them perfectly well in a few hours, but to keep them in health for three weeks with but the one dose, even though they were continued on a diet of polished rice. Funk named this wonderful life-giving substance vitamine, because its effects were life-giving, and chemically it seemed to belong to the amines.
Where Found
Vitamines are found in plants, and especially in their seeds. Fresh meat and raw milk contain them, although animals seem incapable of making them. In summer, milk is richer in them than in winter, because of the difference in feed for the cattle. They are contained also in yolks of eggs, whole grains, potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, lentils—in fact, practically all green garden vegetables, and fruit. In the grains, they are found in the dark layer near the outer surface or branny layer, and in the germ. In potatoes and other vegetables, they lie immediately under the skin. Yeast bread contains more than baking powder breads.
Vitamines are lost by the processing of grains; that is, by the removal of the outer layers, which contain most of these substances. Hence the whole grain should be included in the flour. They are also destroyed by the subjection of foods to too high a temperature. It is therefore best to cook cereals at a low temperature, as in a fireless cooker. The vitamines are sacrificed in the drying of foods, and in the paring of vegetables. If potatoes are boiled, there is great advantage in boiling them in their "jackets," in which case the vitamines and the salts are not lost. If they are pared before they are boiled, the potato water should not be thrown away, as it is rich in vitamines, salts, and protein. Parboiling of other vegetables is objectionable for the same reason. Soda and baking powder and similar chemicals seem to destroy the vitamines. This is one reason why yeast breads are better than baking powder breads. Furthermore, in yeast fermentation, the vitamine preventing beriberi is actually formed, but not the vitamine preventing scurvy. The natural foods that require cooking to make them edible and wholesome contain vitamines which are not destroyed thereby if the cooking is done in the most wholesome and hygienic way.