Word: beriberi
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Dutch scientist named Eijkman discovered that fowls contract a certain disease like beriberi if fed upon polished rice; that they can be cured by feeding them the part of the rice grain removed in polishing. In 1911 Casimir Funk, a Pole, proposed the name vitamine for this essential substance, whatever it was. Since that time vitamin has followed vitamin in quick succession?mainly discovered in U. S. laboratories. The orthodox three are "Fat-soluble A," "Water-soluble B," and "Water-soluble C." Then. there is Vitamin X," the reproductive vitamin. And lately many investigators have been working...
...Funk and Dubin showed that the yeast-stimulating power might be merely accidentally associated with Vitamin B. When an extract rich in B is shaken with Fuller's earth all its anti-neuritic power (power to cure beriberi, the chief characteristic of Vitamin B) is removed, though it continues to stimulate yeast. Funk therefore proposed that Vitamin B was really two vitamins?B, the anti-neuritic, and D, the yeast-stimulating. Dr. E. V. McCollum, of Johns Hopkins University, one of the pioneer American investigators of vitamins, has also used the term Vitamin D for a factor present...
...They have not been isolated. They cannot be seen or weighed. They came to light only when it was found that diets apparently perfectly balanced according to pre-existent information did not provide proper nourishment in some cases arid even brought on certain "; deficiency "; diseases (e. g., scurvy, beriberi, pellagra). There are three major vitamins (Fat-soluble A, Water-soluble B, Water-soluble C), and all three must be present in any correct diet. Plenty of milk and oranges or tomatoes will furnish all of them. But they are not units of measurement and have in no way abolished...