Experiment Station Record, Volume 79, July-December, 1938 Page: 284

                                
284                EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD                    [Vol. 79
p. 137) that the need of vitamin C increases with age. The results obtained in
the cases of tuberculosis studied confirm those of other investigators (E. S. R.,
78, p. 731) in indicating an unusual wastage of vitamin C in this disease and the
need of providing extra vitamin C to make up for the wastage. The results with
rheumatoid arthritis are interpreted as likewise indicating an increased destruction
of vitamin C in this disease.
"It is suggested that determination of the vitamin C excretion under controlled
conditions may be of use as an index to confirm the presence of an infective state,
and also as a prognostic guide to indicate the apparent activity of the disease."
Vitamin D precursors removed from     human skin by washing, A. G.
HELIME  and C. H. JANSEN (Studies Inst. Divi Thomae, Athenaeum Ohio, 1
(1937), No. 2, pp. 207-216, pls. 11).-In continuation of a previous study (E. S. R.,
79, p. 139) the authors conducted a series of bio-assay tests in which rats maintained
on the rachitogenic diet were given as supplement oily substances present
in the secretion from human skin. In the first experiment the skin oil was
obtained from 23 young men following 2 hr. of exercise by washing the upper
part of the body with clean sterile washcloths moistened with clear water.
The cloths and water were extracted three times with ether, and the extract was
concentrated and irradiated by a quartz mercury arc before being fed to the
test rats. In the second experiment 24 young men were exposed to irradiation
from a quartz mercury arc just before the 2-hr. period of exercise, and the
washings removed with clear water were bio-assayed. In another group of 24
young men who were irradiated, the washings were obtained with water and
vitamin D-free soap, and in a third group not subjected to irradiation the
washcloths and water were extracted and irradiated before being bio-assayed.
The results show that the oil removed by washing in clear water and irradiated
possessed curative properties, with 90 percent of the rats having pronounced
healing of the rachitic lesions. The rats receiving the oil removed from
irradiated skin by clear water and by water and soap showed a slight to
moderate degree of healing in about 95 percent of the cases, while of the
animals receiving the oil removed from nonirradiated skin by water only 60
percent showed any healing of the lesions. It is concluded that the oil fractions
removed from the human skin by washing contain an activatable factor which
can be converted into an antirachitic agent by irradiation.
Foods suitable for fortification with vitamin D, C. F. BING ET AL.
(Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 110 (1938), No. 7, p. 511).-The Council on Foods of
the American Medical Association issues a statement that in its report on milk
as the most suitable carrier of vitamin D (E. S. R., 77, p. 890) the term "milk"
includes those milk products used in the same manner and for the same general
purpose as milk, such as evaporated, dried, and dried skim milk and flavored
milk drinks prepared from whole or skim milk in which the volume of milk is at
least 80 percent of the total volume. Suitable evidence regarding the quality
of the product and the maintenance of its vitamin D potency is required by
the council.
The blacktongue-preventive value of whole whey, delactosed whey, and
American cheese, H. W. SEBRELL, R. H. ONSTOTT, and D. J. HUNT (Pub. Health
Rpts. [U. S.], 53 (1938), No. 3, pp. 72-83).-This is another paper in a series of
experimental studies (E. S. R., 77, p. 571) on the blacktongue-preventive values
of various foodstuffs. Three groups of dogs maintained on the basic blacktongue-preventive
diet No. 123 were given a 2.5-g supplement of whole whey
powder which was increased to 7.5 g per kilogram of body weight when the
symptoms of blacktongue developed, a 1-g supplement of delactosed whey powder
which was increased to 3 g, and a 5-g supplement of American cheese which