Show Daily Health 0 o- Service o 0 Editors Editor's Note This is the nineteenth nine nine- of or a series of 36 timely articles by Dr Morris Fishbein on Food Truths and Follies dealing with such much discussed but little known subjects as calories vitamins minerals minerals min mm- digestion and balanced diet 0 By DR MORRIS l FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American n Medical Association and of or the Health Magazine What was once known as the vitamin vitamin vitamin vita vita- min theory is now regarded as as' a well established scientific fact Two hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred years ago a careful observer said that neither medicine nor surgery surgery sur sur- gery ery would help a patient with scurvy This man named Cramer suggested the use of green vegetables or the fresh juice of oranges lemons and citrons as a relief for tor this dis dis- ea ease e. e Some other observers confirmed con con- firmed this observation By 1804 1304 saIlors sail saIl- sail 1 ors in the British navy began to re receive re re- cel c rations of lemon Juice Whereas Where Where- as thousands of cases occurred previously previously previously pre pre- during any year jear the number was at once reduced so that the disease became exceedingly rare Among the Japanese a a. disease called ben berl ben berl was vms exceedingly prey prey- alent The number of cases in the navy numbered annually from 25 to 40 per cent of the entire force About 1885 a Japanese named reasoned reasoned rea rca that had diet some relation to the disease se and succeeded in having the diets of or the sailors modified by substituting barley for the polished rice that had been the chief constituent constituent ent of the diet previously At once beri ben berl bert practically disappeared among the sailors Finally Finall in 1897 an observer named studied a condition in birds produced by feeding them polished rice and found it could be cured b by feeding rice to the birds He Is credited credit with perhaps the most Important observation in the development development devel devel- of or the knowledge of vitamins It t is Important because it emphasized the fact that there was some substance substance substance sub sub- stance in foods essential to proper growth and health From that time on many other investigators have carried on experiments which have resulted In the vast amount of knowledge knowledge knowledge knowl knowl- edge now available on food essentials essen essen- The name vitamin was given to these products in December 1911 by ay Funk Punk He thought at that time that he had isolated the berl ben beri her vitamin in a pure state and he gave it t the name because he thought it it was an amine substance essential to life The language that has grown grownup up about the vitamins is perhaps in general about as inaccurate as the term terra vitamin Itself However language is no respecter of facts |