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Show CHICKENS POINT TO VITAMIN DISCOVERY Beri-Beri Cure Believed to Have Led to Idea. Some chickens In Java contracted contract-ed beri beri In 1S97 and their cure possibly led to the idea expressed in the now common word, vitamin, which Is heard and read on every hand, says H. H. Williams of the New York State College of Agri-cultura Agri-cultura Beri-beri, he says, is a disease of the nerves which leads to paralysis and heart failure. A Dutch physician, named Eijkman, was medical officer to prisoners in Java. He discovered that the hens that were fed only the left-over polished pol-ished rice from the prisoners' table had contracted the disease. Doctor Eijkman then added the rice polishings, which Is similar to the bran of wheat, to the chickens' diet and they recovered. Then the prisoners were fed the unpolished rice instead of the well-milled sort, and from that time the disease beriberi beri-beri ceased to worry medical officers offi-cers of the Orient. From that time the chemists began be-gan to experiment and to theorize on the substances known today as vitamins. The word was first coined twenty years ago by a Polish chemist chem-ist as a symbol for an unknown substance sub-stance vital to health and life. Later, the chemists turned to the alphabet as a temporary means to designate each vitamin, since they are of unknown composition. Six different vitamins are now definitely definite-ly known, although a recent book lists a possible seventeen. No one knows what vitamins are except that they occur In small quantities, that they are easily destroyed by heat and oxidation. |