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THE VITAMIN ASSAY OF COD-LIVER OIL.
199 infection which is promoted perhaps by the fact that monkeys and apes never spit. What is not represented in the monkeys is the adult type of human tuberculosis ; there being presumably no tubercle bacilli in their natural homes they never receive the small immunising infections in infancy which so much modify the course .of human tuberculosis in later life. ____
THE VITAMIN ASSAY OF COD-LIVER OIL.
last issue (pp.
148-150) appeared a report extremely interesting attempt to evaluate the vitamin A in cod-liver oil. The attempt was made at the instigation of the Second International Conference (League of Nations) on the Biological Standardisation of Certain Remedies, and was organised in this country by the Accessory Food IN
our
describing
an
oils tested in the same rather rough way as was possible in testing for vitamin A, and to say definitely that whatever the original relationship, there was no fixed quantitative ratio between the amounts of vitamin A and of vitamin D in the oils at the time of testing. They point out that the chief medicinal value of cod-liver oil lies in its content of vitamin D and that to evaluate the vitamin A in a certain oil furnishes no evidence as to its content of vitamin D. They therefore criticise the biological method of testing cod-liver oil, laid down in the United States Pharmacopoeia, which aims at the biological assay of vitamin A only. Everyone who has worked with tests of this type knows how difficult it is to get clean-cut results, unless a vast number of animals is used, and the papers at present under consideration should also be useful in showing what degree of accuracy can be looked for and what degree it is quite useless to expect unless a large series of animals can be used.
Factors Committee of the Medical Research Council The object was to and of the Lister Institute. compare the values obtained by a number of different laboratories for the same samples of cod-liver oil THE TAVISTOCK CLINIC. submitted to all of them. The tests were to be made of and the method one biological (growth rats) by THE Tavistock Clinic has celebrated its seventh laboratory was to make a colorimetric test, so that birthday by a general stocktaking, the results of its result might be compared with those obtained by which have just been published. In December, 1919, the biological method. Apart altogether from its it was decided to open a psychotherapeutic clinic the attempt itself marks an epoch, and reveals on an basis of three years, with the Tesults experimental in a gratifying manner the machinery which we now that it should be closed if and when understanding possess, whereby the desire of the League of Nations hospitals could meet the need. Eight years later could be imparted to a number of different laboradespite the establishment of psychotherapeutic tories in this country and their ready cooperation clinics at there is no talk of closing down, secured. A few years ago there was no means by but ratherhospitals, of further expansion. Largely owing to which such a test could be made save by the goodwill the enthusiasm and wisdom of its honorary director, of an individual worker in an individual laboratory. Dr. H. Crichton Miller, and the devoted services of Now, besides the machinery already referred to, there its first honorary secretary, Mrs. Leith Ross, the also exists the possibility for a substance to be tested Tavistock-square Clinic has come to stay. Since officially for its vitamin value by submitting it to the the first patient was received on Sept. 27th, 1920, vitamin-testing department of the British Pharma- 2545 cases have passed through it, and it has estabceutical Society ; indeed, when this department has lished a place deep in the hearts of very many of them. had time to get under weigh the claim of any Between the Scylla of poverty and the Charybdis proprietary article to contain vitamins should not be of institutionalism, the clinic steers a difficult course. accepted unless substantiated by such a test. The On the latter it has certainly not foundered, for it Empire Marketing Board, too, has a research depart- has a peculiar personal touch which no hospital can ment devoted to the study of problems connected with well provide. The ideal of the consulting-room the vitamin values of foodstuffs. Ten years ago the has been maintained, although, so greatly has the need for these agencies was already strongly felt, but work outgrown its premises, psychotherapy must their establishment seemed a very remote dream, and now be practised in an area and the children’s departthere is ground for satisfaction that in that short time I ment works in a basement kitchen. About one-third they have come so fully into existence. of the cost of treatment is contributed by the patients, As regards the actual results of the tests the findings although inability to pay anything is never a reason of the different laboratories are in very tolerable agree- for refusing admittance. Many of the staff serve ment where a simple grading of the oils is concerned, on an honorary basis, but workers are still handicapped but it is pointed out that in order to assign actual by the necessity for bazaars, matinees, and other quantitative values to the vitamin A content of the forms of begging inseparable from an inadequate different oils by the biological method, it would be revenue. The historv of the furniture in use at necessary to use far more experimental animals than the clinic would make a good story; the report was in this case possible, since the variation in the asserts that, however it may have been obtained, it performance of individual rats is very considerable. was rarely purchased and never stolen. Whether The colorimetric method gave results in agreement or not the 30,000 they desire would drive them on with the results of the biological tests, but the report to Charybdis only the experiment would show ; urges that before any conclusion is drawn as to its without doubt valuable research material is being general validity, a comparison should be made of the wasted for lack of an adequate institute. The children’s results given by it and by the biological method, in department deals with every kind of maladjusted the assay of vitamin A in substances other than child, and an interesting table shows the very high cod-liver oil, such as butter, palm oil, and cereal oil. proportion of cases in which neurotic symptoms, other The different cod-liver oils used were prepared by than those complained of, were revealed on investigadifferent methods and had different histories The tion. The trained social worker plays an integral tests show that the shorter the history of the oil and part in the treatment of the child patient, for she the less its exposure to the air the greater its potency alone can provide the physician with these data of in vitamin A, even the factor of the oil being kept in home and family which are essential pieces in the a full or a half-filled bottle seemed to make a marked puzzle. An outstanding feature of work at the clinic difference ; the liability of vitamin A to destruction has always been the breadth of the survey made of each patient. The case-paper presents the physician by oxidation is, of course, well known. Following the report appeared a paper (pp. 150-152) with a formidable array of questions covering every by Miss J. L. Leigh Clare and Miss K. M. Soames, who system of the patient’s economy. The focal sepsis, made the test described above for the Lister Institute, the endocrine pattern, the stigma of degeneration, giving further details of their test and the results of the faulty function of any organ or system-all their examination of the same series of oils for these are taken into consideration before the purely -vitamin D. In testing for this vitamin they find the psychogenic factors are allowed to dominate the same wide range of behaviour in individual rats, as in picture. A laboratory was installed in 1926. A testing for vitamin A, but they were able to grade the routine physical examination is followed by a labora-
THE VITAMIN ASSAY OF COD-LIVER OIL.
last issue (pp.
148-150) appeared a report extremely interesting attempt to evaluate the vitamin A in cod-liver oil. The attempt was made at the instigation of the Second International Conference (League of Nations) on the Biological Standardisation of Certain Remedies, and was organised in this country by the Accessory Food IN
our
describing
an
oils tested in the same rather rough way as was possible in testing for vitamin A, and to say definitely that whatever the original relationship, there was no fixed quantitative ratio between the amounts of vitamin A and of vitamin D in the oils at the time of testing. They point out that the chief medicinal value of cod-liver oil lies in its content of vitamin D and that to evaluate the vitamin A in a certain oil furnishes no evidence as to its content of vitamin D. They therefore criticise the biological method of testing cod-liver oil, laid down in the United States Pharmacopoeia, which aims at the biological assay of vitamin A only. Everyone who has worked with tests of this type knows how difficult it is to get clean-cut results, unless a vast number of animals is used, and the papers at present under consideration should also be useful in showing what degree of accuracy can be looked for and what degree it is quite useless to expect unless a large series of animals can be used.
Factors Committee of the Medical Research Council The object was to and of the Lister Institute. compare the values obtained by a number of different laboratories for the same samples of cod-liver oil THE TAVISTOCK CLINIC. submitted to all of them. The tests were to be made of and the method one biological (growth rats) by THE Tavistock Clinic has celebrated its seventh laboratory was to make a colorimetric test, so that birthday by a general stocktaking, the results of its result might be compared with those obtained by which have just been published. In December, 1919, the biological method. Apart altogether from its it was decided to open a psychotherapeutic clinic the attempt itself marks an epoch, and reveals on an basis of three years, with the Tesults experimental in a gratifying manner the machinery which we now that it should be closed if and when understanding possess, whereby the desire of the League of Nations hospitals could meet the need. Eight years later could be imparted to a number of different laboradespite the establishment of psychotherapeutic tories in this country and their ready cooperation clinics at there is no talk of closing down, secured. A few years ago there was no means by but ratherhospitals, of further expansion. Largely owing to which such a test could be made save by the goodwill the enthusiasm and wisdom of its honorary director, of an individual worker in an individual laboratory. Dr. H. Crichton Miller, and the devoted services of Now, besides the machinery already referred to, there its first honorary secretary, Mrs. Leith Ross, the also exists the possibility for a substance to be tested Tavistock-square Clinic has come to stay. Since officially for its vitamin value by submitting it to the the first patient was received on Sept. 27th, 1920, vitamin-testing department of the British Pharma- 2545 cases have passed through it, and it has estabceutical Society ; indeed, when this department has lished a place deep in the hearts of very many of them. had time to get under weigh the claim of any Between the Scylla of poverty and the Charybdis proprietary article to contain vitamins should not be of institutionalism, the clinic steers a difficult course. accepted unless substantiated by such a test. The On the latter it has certainly not foundered, for it Empire Marketing Board, too, has a research depart- has a peculiar personal touch which no hospital can ment devoted to the study of problems connected with well provide. The ideal of the consulting-room the vitamin values of foodstuffs. Ten years ago the has been maintained, although, so greatly has the need for these agencies was already strongly felt, but work outgrown its premises, psychotherapy must their establishment seemed a very remote dream, and now be practised in an area and the children’s departthere is ground for satisfaction that in that short time I ment works in a basement kitchen. About one-third they have come so fully into existence. of the cost of treatment is contributed by the patients, As regards the actual results of the tests the findings although inability to pay anything is never a reason of the different laboratories are in very tolerable agree- for refusing admittance. Many of the staff serve ment where a simple grading of the oils is concerned, on an honorary basis, but workers are still handicapped but it is pointed out that in order to assign actual by the necessity for bazaars, matinees, and other quantitative values to the vitamin A content of the forms of begging inseparable from an inadequate different oils by the biological method, it would be revenue. The historv of the furniture in use at necessary to use far more experimental animals than the clinic would make a good story; the report was in this case possible, since the variation in the asserts that, however it may have been obtained, it performance of individual rats is very considerable. was rarely purchased and never stolen. Whether The colorimetric method gave results in agreement or not the 30,000 they desire would drive them on with the results of the biological tests, but the report to Charybdis only the experiment would show ; urges that before any conclusion is drawn as to its without doubt valuable research material is being general validity, a comparison should be made of the wasted for lack of an adequate institute. The children’s results given by it and by the biological method, in department deals with every kind of maladjusted the assay of vitamin A in substances other than child, and an interesting table shows the very high cod-liver oil, such as butter, palm oil, and cereal oil. proportion of cases in which neurotic symptoms, other The different cod-liver oils used were prepared by than those complained of, were revealed on investigadifferent methods and had different histories The tion. The trained social worker plays an integral tests show that the shorter the history of the oil and part in the treatment of the child patient, for she the less its exposure to the air the greater its potency alone can provide the physician with these data of in vitamin A, even the factor of the oil being kept in home and family which are essential pieces in the a full or a half-filled bottle seemed to make a marked puzzle. An outstanding feature of work at the clinic difference ; the liability of vitamin A to destruction has always been the breadth of the survey made of each patient. The case-paper presents the physician by oxidation is, of course, well known. Following the report appeared a paper (pp. 150-152) with a formidable array of questions covering every by Miss J. L. Leigh Clare and Miss K. M. Soames, who system of the patient’s economy. The focal sepsis, made the test described above for the Lister Institute, the endocrine pattern, the stigma of degeneration, giving further details of their test and the results of the faulty function of any organ or system-all their examination of the same series of oils for these are taken into consideration before the purely -vitamin D. In testing for this vitamin they find the psychogenic factors are allowed to dominate the same wide range of behaviour in individual rats, as in picture. A laboratory was installed in 1926. A testing for vitamin A, but they were able to grade the routine physical examination is followed by a labora-