Braun Robyn
Department of Sociology and Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
J Hist Biol. 2011 Fall;44(3):483-504. doi: 10.1007/s10739-010-9255-3.
Despite the practical knowledge throughout the nineteenth century that citrus fruit cured scurvy, and that rickets and beriberi were diseases caused by poor diet, it was not until 1901 that animal feeding experiments led one investigator to propose the existence of 'accessory food factors,' a lack of which was determined to be the cause of some illnesses (Hopkins, 1949. In Joseph Needham and E. Baldwin (eds.), Hopkins and Biochemistry, 1861-1947: Papers Concerning Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, O.M., P.R.S., with a Selection of His Addresses and a Bibliography of His Publications. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Ltd). The discovery of vitamins has long been considered as a delayed discovery. This delay has been attributed to the power of the germ theory in physiology at the time. While the germ theory and theories of auto-intoxication certainly played a role in delaying the discovery of vitamins, I argue further that it is important to consider the difference made to physiology by understanding the vitamins' catalytic function. The profound difference made to physiology by the vitamins' catalytic function suggests that a vitamin concept had previously been systematically inaccessible to researchers working within the conceptual framework of Bernardian physiology.
尽管在整个19世纪人们就已经具备了柑橘类水果能治愈坏血病以及佝偻病和脚气病是由饮食不良引起的实际知识，但直到1901年，动物喂养实验才使一位研究人员提出“辅助食物因子”的存在，确定缺乏这些因子是某些疾病的病因（霍普金斯，1949年。载于约瑟夫·尼达姆和E.鲍德温编著的《霍普金斯与生物化学，1861 - 1947：关于弗雷德里克· Gowland·霍普金斯爵士的论文，皇家学会会员，附其演讲选集及出版物书目》。剑桥：W. 赫弗父子有限公司）。维生素的发现长期以来一直被视为一个延迟发现。这种延迟归因于当时生理学中病菌学说的影响力。虽然病菌学说和自身中毒理论在延迟维生素发现方面肯定起到了作用，但我进一步认为，理解维生素的催化功能对生理学产生的差异也很重要。维生素的催化功能给生理学带来的深刻差异表明，对于在伯纳德生理学概念框架内工作的研究人员来说，维生素概念以前在系统上是无法理解的。
