Abstract
Dutcher 1 concluded from experiments on pigeons that honey contained a small but negligible amount of antineuritic vitamine. Faber 2 did not find honey to protect against scurvy in guinea pigs.
The present authors carried out feeding experiments on albino rats, to determine whether the growth promoting accessories fat-soluble A and water-soluble B were present in white clover honey or in a mixed strained honey, and whether these honeys protected guinea pigs against scurvy.
Rats fed a diet lacking water-soluble B when compared with rats fed the same diet except that half of the carbohydrate was replaced by an isodynamic equivalent of either of these honeys, showed in five weeks an average gain in weight of only five grams in favor of the honey-fed rats.
Similar experiments on the addition of the strained honey to diets deficient in fat-soluble A showed almost similar failure of growth. The addition of comb honey, however, brought about cessation of decline and distinct gains in weight.
The addition of twenty per cent. of honey to the diets of guinea pigs did not prevent, or appreciably delay, the development of scurvy in these animals.
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