The Nutritional Requirements of Baby Chicks

When Sugiura and Benedict (1) concluded from their work with pigeons and squabs that vitamin A was not required for avian nutrition, a fundamental distinction, if true, in the nutritional requirement of birds and mammals was made. It would seem, of course, that such an observation could not go unchallenged for any length of time, especially when the entire gamut of avian life was included. Consequently, it was no surprise when a little later Emmett and Peacock (2) reinvestigated this point and produced evidence unfavorable to the sweeping conclusion of Sugiura and Benedict, but in support of the view that vitamin A is required by the chicken, which is as distinctly avian as is the pigeon. In our experiments on the nutritional requirements of baby chicks we have had occasion to accumulate considerable data bearing on this same point and in this paper we desire to present such data, all of which is in support of the early conclusion of Emmett and Peacock that the chick does require vitamin A for its existence. In early work with baby chicks on the use of synthetic diets (3) such as are employed with success in rat nutrition we experienced varying degrees of success. A diet carrying 37 per cent of