THE VITAMINS

Despite the frequency with which the ordinary man is to-day confronted with the word vitamin, much confusion and ignorance still prevails as to what vitamins are. The inaccurate and unjustified use of the word by advertisers is largely responsible for this, a particularly entertaining example being that recently quoted in this Journal, where vitamins were defined as “little bodies found in vegetables and herbs.” Since claims are sometimes made concerning the vitamin content of beer, it is desirable that brewers should have at least an elementary knowledge of the subject, and the aim of this paper is to provide a brief but scientific survey of the field.