The view of McCarrison that the anti-neuntic substance (his nucleopast) is closely concerned with the functioning of the nucleus would derive support from the early attempts of Funk, Williams and others to identify the anti-neuritic substance with purins or pyrimidins, since these are cleavage products of nucleic acids. It has been pointed out how, in recent times, all such views have received a setback, through failure of later investigators to confirm the observations recorded with hydrolytic products of nucleic acid. Mc-Collum and Simmonds (19) have found thymus nucleic acid unable to replace in a diet, otherwise satisfactory, extracts which contain the substance water-soluble B, which nearly all students in this field now regard as identical with the anti-neuritic substance. It can hardly be regarded as satisfactorily demonstrated that the so-called vitamins are associated with the nucleus rather than with some other cell structure.

261. Beri-Beri Does Not Appear In Fasting Birds

Funk (24) made observation that the symptoms of beri-beri did not appear in fasting birds and that an increase in the amount of food ingested, especially of carbohydrate, hastened the onset of the disease. Others have corroborated these findings. Dutcher (15) is of the opinion that the carbohydrate effect is due to an overloading of the oxidative mechanism of the body rather than to a specific relation between the metabolism of carbohydrate and "vitamin," the latter being used up in the process. Funk and Schonborn (24) found an increased sugar content in the blood to result from lack of the anti-neuritic substance, and a diminished amount of glycogen in the liver.

262. Dutcher's Studies On Catalase In Beri-Beri

Dutcher believes that the anti-neuritic substance functions as a metabolic stimulant. He observed (25) that the body temperature fell during the development of avian polyneuritis and rose after the administration of the anti-neuritic substance. Measurement of the catalase content of the tissues of birds suffering from the disease, revealed the fact that catalase is decreased to 56 per cent of the normal, and that it returns to normal when they are treated with suitable extracts of natural foods. These findings, he interprets as a great reduction in polyneuritis of the oxidative processes of the body. It is pointed out that such a depression of oxidation resulted in the accumulation of toxic metabolic products, which affected the nervous system and brought about the typical paralysis and other symptoms.