The water soluble B is chiefly secured from grain (germ and pericarp), eggs, yeast and legumes (entire seed). The fat soluble A is chiefly secured in cream, butter, cod liver oil, egg yolk and green legumes. The antiscorbutic factor is chiefly found in cabbage, turnips, lettuce, cresses, tomatoes, oranges and citrus fruits, and to a lesser extent in potatoes and carrots. It is destroyed in any dried food. In general the vitamins are destroyed or lost by cooking, by overheating (milk), by laking out in boiling, by too prolonged desiccation or by discarding the outer covering of grains.
The Individual Prevention and Cure of these Diseases.— (a) Scurvy: Among these groups where scurvy has appeared the disease has disappeared following the addition of either: (r) juice of fresh sweet limes or lemons; (2) infusions of malt, (3) sauerkraut, (4) milk or (5) fresh potatoes to the dietary.
(b) Beriberi too has disappearaed or has not developed with diets having the following characteristics: reduction of the amount of rice or a substitution of unmilled for polished rice, and the addition of legumes and other vegetables.
(c) According to Goldberger by increasing the amount of fresh animal food and legumes in the diet of the inmates of three institutions where pellagra has been prevalent, he has prevented its recurrance during a period of one year, even among those individuals who were pellagrins during previous years.
Public problem of dealing with these dis eases from a public standpoint is more difficult of attack than is the administrative control of communicable diseases, and prob ably is more dependent upon popular education.
(a) Beriberi can probably be publically controlled by placing a prohibitive tax on the sale of polished rice.
(b) Pellagra on the other hand, is more difficult. An in creased consumption of milk, eggs, legumes and fresh vege tables, together with meats is necessary. To a large extent this requires an improvement in the economic condition of the wage earners to enable them to increase their living standards. Some of this can be accomplished by domestic gardening and chicken raising.