Abstract
The above results indicate, that all the guinea pigs fed on oatmeal and water, and those injected with dextrose, show a remarkable decrease in body weight. Namely the rate of decrease in final body weight to that at the beginning, in the former and in the latter was respectively, 42% and 39% on an average. Accordingly the length of life was short, i.e. 17-23 days. In spite of this the appetite was fairly good even until the last moment of life. On the dissection after death, we found such signs of scurvy as loosened teeth and hemorrhage in organ tissue. On the contrary, those which were given the rra dish. juice orally, though they showed a little decrease in body weight (26.5%), on the autopsy findings after slaughter, no symptom of scurvy was found. In the case of another one, the rate of decrease in body weight was 43.6%, and it lived for 27 days. But the death was caused by deglutition of pneumonia, and we could not find any symptom of scurvy. In the case of guinea pips which were given “C Sample” both orally and parenterally, the decrease in body weight was not remarkable, so that the rate of decrease in the final body weight to the initial, on the oral side and on the parenteral side, was but 15.3% and 23.9% respectively. The amounts of food ingested were normal. The animal was entirely healthy under feeding for more than a month, and besides no abnormal condition was recognised at all. On dissection, we could not find even the slightest symptom of scurvy. But in either case, the decrease in body weight was indispensable. As McCollum, Simmonds and Pitz (1917) already stated, this fact rises from oats being not only imperfect in amino acid and salts but also devoid of vitamin A.
