Discussion on the importance of accessory food factors (vitamines) in the feeding of infants / Edward Mellanby [and others].

Date:
[1920?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Discussion on the importance of accessory food factors (vitamines) in the feeding of infants / Edward Mellanby [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Section for tbe Stuf>\) of HMseaae in Cbilbren. President—Mr. J. P. Lockhart-Mummery, F.B.C.S. DISCUSSION ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCESSORY FOOD FACTORS (VITAMINES) IN THE FEEDING OF INFANTS.1 Dr. Edward Mellanby. It is obviously a matter of great difficulty for a laboratory worker to open a discussion concerned with the feeding of children. The task is not rendered easier by my consciousness of the exceptional difficulty in arguing from one species of animal to another when dealing with questions of diet and metabolism. Every worker on the subject of vitamines has this difficulty always before him. We must also recognize that much of the accessory food factor story has not been extended to children or tried beyond the laboratory walls. It is just for these reasons, however, that a discussion of the type we are having to-day should be of great value ; because the laboratory worker and the clinician meet face to face. Each can describe his observations. The physi¬ ologist may throw new light on the points under discussion, and, still more important, the clinician may assist the investigator in evaluating his experimental results and so prevent the exaggeration of one fact at the expense of another. We are fortunate in having the clinical side of the subject repre¬ sented by Dr. Barton, Dr. Hutchison, and Dr. Pritchard. I trust I am voicing the opinions of all present when I express the wish that, not only will these gentlemen place before us the chief conditions affecting the so-called deficiency diseases, as met with in practice, but that they 1 At a meeting of the Section, held February 27, 1920.