The transmission of vitamin A from parents to young in mammals

THE attack now being made on the important question of the vitamin A reserves of the human organism in relation to health and disease [Wolff, 1929] may be expected to advance considerably our knowledge of the possible benefits of vitamin A therapy; but whatever may be learned of the influence of the vitamin A reserve of the adult upon health, it is unlikely that work with uncontrolled material in the form of available tissues from autopsies can yield much information concerning the importance and effect of the vitamin A supply of the foetus and the growing child before and after weaning. Wolff has noted that, weight for weight, the livers of new-born children examined by him contained much less vitamin A than the livers of adults: 62-5 % contained no vitamin A, 25 % contained up to one-half as much as the average adult, and 12 5 % contained as much as the average adult examined by him. Although