NEWS FROM THE VITAMIN FRONT

Grey River Argus, 18 December 1940, Page 8

NEWS FROM THE VITAMIN FRONT

By

Professor J. B. S. Haldane

An important application of vitamins is to miner’s nystagmus. This is a disease in which the eyes are permanently moving and vision is impaired. If you want to see what a nystagmus looks like, get a friend to turn round very quickly several times, and then watch his eyes. Minors nystagmus is certainly due to had lighting, but most coal miners, even in poorly lit mines do not get it, so there must be another cause or perhaps several. Dr. Kellet, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, thinks the cause is a shortage of vitamin A, which is needed for seeing in the dark; most children and many adults in the U.K. are short of it. So Dr. Kellett examined the diets of 4U -Durham miners who had never had nystagmus. Their average consumption of butter was 13 ounces per •week, and an average of an egg per day and large amounts of liver, both of which are good sources of vitamin A.

■ ‘To-day these miners are restricted to 6 ounces of butter a week, and ’ they can get no eggs at all under war conditions for weeks at a Lime. Dr. Kelett will perhaps be able to watch the effects of rationing on these men and see how many develop eye trouble during the war. Even if they do not get nystagmus, their vision may be affected so as to render them more 'liable to accidents. This is only one small example of the myriad unexpected ways in which war problems crop up in industry and the nation's life generally. I believe that a special ration of ' cod-liver-oil or margarine of high vitamin A content should be provided not only for miners and lorry-drivers, but for men and women in the defence forces who have to work in the dark. In the war of 1914-18 the Germans suffered more than the British from vitamin deficiencies. According to the * Times” th*- German authorities have reacted to the increased night-blindness shown up by their blackout, and “for the moment the

demond for more vitamin A hao v-' 1 met by their chemical industry which has produced an artilical vitamin, possessing, it is claimed prime va - ve in warding off and c.m.’ng nightblindness.” , The claim that the artificial vitamin is any better than the natural one for this purpose is, I suspect, as unreliable as some other Nazi ®iaims. But at least they are tackling the problem. I have news from South Africa that before the war the Germans bought from that Dominion huge quantities of concentrated orange iuice, with the object of providing needed vitamins for their civilian population. No such quantities had been sold to Britain. Unless the British Government tackles the problem with a similar energy and foresight, it is clear inat vitamin lack may easily lower the war efficiency of key sections of the population. GENERAL NEWS SERVICE.