THE PRESENT STATUS OF VITAMIN DEFICIENCIES IN PRACTICE

It is becoming better and better recognized that the mild or latent forms of the vitamin deficiencies are more important in practice at present than the fully developed cases. The latter are uncommon, are easily recognized and are usually promptly and adequately treated. On the other hand there is reason to believe that minimal or mild forms of these diseases are much more frequent, often escape recognition and, because of their insidious effect on large numbers of people, constitute a more serious problem than the occasional advanced cases. It is true that the diagnosis of these mild forms is often difficult and uncertain. Nevertheless, there is available today much new knowledge of the vitamins which is applicable to the diagnosis and study of the milder forms of their deficiencies in patients. It is my purpose in this paper to describe the present means of diagnosis of the mild or early