Abstract
The present investigation was undertaken with the view of rinding out a method of differentiation between the vitamine which cures beriberi and the vitamine which stimulates growth of young rats. It was also of interest to ascertain whether an unstable substance of the vitamine class would undergo inactivation under the action of emanation. This latter point is of practical importance in view of the extensive use of radium in the treatment of cancer. In the light of modern knowledge of the subject the therapeutic use of radium for the above purpose can be explained by a stimulation of leucocytes or by a destructive action of a physiologically active chemical substance, the second view not being supported by actual experiments; so for instance the alleged action of radium on lecithin with the liberation of choline was not confirmed by modern investigators.
The experiments were performed in the following way. Auto-lyzed yeast was subjected to the action of radium emanation (the activity of which and the time of action has been determined by Dr. Bosworth from Memorial Hospital, the details of the work to be presented later) samples of the radiated and the non-radiated control autolyzed yeast being injected intramuscularly into pigeons of uniform weight of 300 gr. which developed beriberi on white rice. The dose of the administered solutions was gradually worked down to .1 c.c. which was found to be the minimum dose in both cases. The result therefore was that the radium emanation has no destroying action on beriberi-vitamine.
In a similar way it has been ascertained that radium emanation possesses no action on the vitamine which stimulates growth in young rats so that by the above method the differentiation of the two vitamines has not been accomplished.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.