ication of all the
refinements of modern chemical technic that the chemist, Funk, was able
to capture and identify this most subtle but marvelously potent element
of the food. This discovery has cleared up a long category of medical
mysteries. We now know not only the cause of beri-beri and scurvy and
the simple method of cure by supplying vitamine-containing foods, but
within a very short time it has been shown that rickets and pellagra are
likewise deficiency diseases, probably due to lack of vitamines, and in
a recent discussion before the New York Academy of Medicine by Funk,
Holt, Jacobi and others, it was maintained that vast multitudes of
people are suffering from disorders of nutrition due to the same cause.

Osborne a few years ago conducted experiments which demonstrated that
something more than pure food elements and salts is essential for growth
and development. They found that rats fed on starch and fat lived only
four to eight weeks. When protein was added they sometimes lived and
grew and sometimes remained stunted or died. It was thus evident that
proteins differ. Their observations proved very clearly that there are
perfect and imperfect proteins. The protein of corn, zein, for example,
was shown to be incapable of supporting life. With the addition of a
chemical fraction, tryptophan, obtained from another protein, the rats
lived, but did not grow. By adding another fractional protein, lysin,
the rats were made to thrive.

A minute study of the subject by Osborne, Mendel and numerous other
physiologic chemists have shown that a perfect protein is composed of
more than a dozen different bodies called amino-acids, each of which
must be present in the right proportion to enable the body to use the
protein in body building. Each plant produces its one peculiar kind of
protein. The protein of milk, caseine, is a perfect protein. Eggs and
meat, of course, supply complete proteins, but among plants there are
many imperfect proteins.

McCollum has demonstrated that grains, either singly or in combination
will not maintain life and growth. The same is true of a mixture of
grains with peas or navy beans. Another element is lacking which must be
supplied to support life and growth.

With these facts before us we are prepared to inquire what place in the
dietary are nuts prepared to fill? With few exceptions nuts contain
little carbohydrate (starch or sugar). They are, however, rich in fat
and protein. On accou