Vitamin A as an anti-infective agent / by H.N. Green and E. Mellanby.

  • Green, H. N. (Harry Norman)
Date:
[1928?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Vitamin A as an anti-infective agent / by H.N. Green and E. Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, October 20th, 1928. VITAMIN A AS AN ANTI-INFECTIVE AGENT. BY H. N. GREEN, M.D., Cii.B., M.Sc., AND E. MELLANBY, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S. (From the Pharmacology Department, University of Sheffield.) The assigning of names descriptive of some particular function to distinctive vitamins has been a useful, although probably only temporary, step in the development of know¬ ledge of these elusive entities, because their identification has so often depended upon the appearance of definite syndromes in animals whose diets have been deficient in certain respects. The use of the words “ antiscorbutic,” “ antineuritic,” and “ antirachitic ” in describing specific vitamins is an example of this, and from a clinical stand¬ point the nomenclature has been of great value. Vitamin A has always presented special difficulties to a clinically descriptive term because it has depended to such a large extent on a purely physiological criterion—namely, growth in young animals—for its detection. It is in consequence often referred to as the u growth-promoting ” vitamin. Since the recognition of vitamin D (the antirachitic vitamin) as an entity distinct from vitamin A, those with experience of nutritional work have felt that to call vitamin A the “ growth-promoting ” vitamin is a misnomer, for good growth often takes place in its absence if the diet is otherwise complete. In fact, when growth ceases owing to the single absence of vitamin A from the diet, it often means that the animal is definitely ill—in the sense, as will be seen below, of its having developed some, and often a widespread, infective condition. Indeed, the present paper supplies evidence in favour of the term “ anti- infective ” being applied to vitamin A. From the early days of its recognition it has been thought that vitamin A was concerned with resistance to infection, at least of a specific type. This is seen in its description as the “anti-xerophthalmic ” vitamin, but this appellation has never become widely adopted, partly because [602/28]