attacked Gen. Hofmann with greatly superior forces, so fhat the detachment sent to Drohobycz had to intervene at Stryj. It was therefore unable to procure any relief for the II. Army particularly as Gen. Hofmann had also been forced to retreat.
Simultaneously with this, the attack along the whole front of the II. and III. Armies was continued. In the case of the III. Army this culminated in the attempt to capture the Czyszki heights and in the defence of the Magiera height against the Russians who were longing to regain it, while the II. Army aimed at relieving the enemy pressure on the right wing. But by Oct. 23 the great numerical superiority of the Russians at this point had become evident, and the II. Army command found it neces- sary to bring back the IV. Corps consisting of the 38th Honved Inf. Div., the 3ist Inf. Div. and the ist, sth and 8th Cav. Divs. without delay to tlje heights N.E. of Turka. The XII. Corps was to remain on the heights W. of Stary Sambor, and the IV. Corps was brought up from the III. Army to fill the gap between the two. The Russians kept touch with the retreating divisions but for the moment attempted no sort of pursuit.
The III. Army, stricken with cholera and short of munitions, had not been able to achieve any real success up to Oct. 26. On the afternoon of that day a general attack was delivered by the III. Army with the object of relieving the II. Army, but as this also failed almost completely the front was technically strength- ened and the reserves were taken out of it and placed at the disposal of the II. Army.
Meanwhile the Russians had not molested the II. Army's right wing to any extent, but directed their energies toward the gap between the IV. and XII. Corps, where they hoped to break through. Their attack on Oct. 26 across the Holownia height had begun to look like a break-through, when Field-marshal St. Krautwald's group of the III. Army, together with two newly arrived Landsturm territorial brigades and a few march battalions, came to the rescue. The IV. Corps, as soon as it had recovered a little from the recent heavy fighting, went over to the attack, and took the Bzeniec, Podzemen and Zwihonka heights.
The attack by Krautwald's group and the IV. Corps had good results. By Oct. 31 the Russian VII. Corps had been driven from the stubbornly defended Holownia height. As this attack progressed, the XII. Corps and, shortly after, the III. Army joined in. On the morning of Nov. 2, the whole of the II. Army was engaged in the attack. Hofmann's Corps, which had retired
Skole after the abortive advance on Drohobycz, also joined in
.e renewed attack on Stryj. The XII. Corps came up close to
,ry Sambor and up to the Kundieska height. The IV. Corps
iproached the strong Russian position Lisyj height Zalarski
ight and the heights E. of Podbuz.
Just as the battle at Chyrow seemed at last to be taking a favourable turn, after the II. Army had received reinforcements, and the reconstruction of the railways leading to Chyrow and Przemysl promised a considerable improvement in the service of munitions and supplies, there came the order to retire, an order totally unexpected by the troops of the II. and III. Army engaged in the attack.
The army higher command had already informed the army commands on Oct. 27 of the unfavourable situation in the bend of the Vistula, and announced the possibility of the breaking off of the battle. The position of the armies fighting on the San, at Przemysl and at Chyrow, had been made untenable by the withdrawal of the German IX. Army and the Austro-Hungarian I. Army from the line Sieradz-Kielce, and from the Opat6wka to behind the Nida practically to the Silcsian frontier. In spite of the successes just achieved on the S. wing, therefore, the Austro-Hungarian armies had again to be led back, in view of the general situation. In Upper Sjlesia, in the Cracow area and in Western Galicia, a new grouping of the Austro-Hungarian armies was to be undertaken, under the protection of the Carpa- thian ridge, in readiness for a new offensive in better circum- stances in conjunction with the German IX. Army which was also to be reorganized.
The retreat was begun in the night of Nov. 2-3, by the left wing of the Austro-Hungarian IV. Army, and by the right wing,
now amalgamated with the III. Army. Both these and the II. Army broke contact with the enemy in the night of Nov. 4-5. (E- J-)
VITAMINE, the term now employed to designate certain substances contained in foods. The exact nature of these substances is not known, but they have been shown to be necessary to the normal development of young animals (including children) as well as to the maintenance of health and well-being in adults. They are very labile substances which, existing abundantly in raw foods, especially in uncooked fruits and vegetables, become seriously attenuated or altogether destroyed
by cooking, desiccation, dccortication and other refining processes. There are probably a great many vitamines in natural foods live or quick foods, as they are called but up to the time of writing three only have been isolated. These are (i) the anti-
scorbutic factor; (2) the water-soluble B.; (3) the fat-soluble A.
The Anti-Scorbutic Factor. As long ago as 1734 J. E. Bach-
strom observed that the disease known as scorbutus or scurvy
appeared to be related to the ingestion of salted, preserved and
dried foods. The disease in question was alarmingly prevalent
among mariners on long distance sailing vessels, and the British
navy was annually decimated by this scourge. The introduction
of fresh vegetables and fruits into the dietary of the sailors was
found to afford them complete protection against the disease, but
the knowledge thus empirically gained was not followed by any
scientific investigation, and though the door was thus widely
opened to the discovery of vitamines, these important substances
were destined to lie perdu for nearly 200 years. This anti-scorbu-
tic factor is the most fragile of the three which have so far been
isolated. It is present in large quantities in all uncooked fruits
and vegetables, and it is interesting to note that the popular idea
that foods which have been kissed by the sun have a greater
value than those which have not, finds some justification in the
fact that vegetables grown above ground are much richer in the
anti-scorbutic factor than root vegetables. This factor is well
represented in fresh milk, but boiling, pasteurization, or evapora-
tion completely destroys it.. The activity of the anti-scorbutic
factor is much increased by germination; thus, beans, peas, or
the grains of wheat or barley in the ordinary dry quiescent state
contain no anti-scorbutic factor, but if they be placed in water
and allowed to germinate, they immediately acquire this vita-
mine in large quantities. There is a practical application of this
interesting fact which should not be lost sight of by travellers in
inaccessible regions.
The Water-Soluble B. Prof. Gowland Hopkins of Cambridge published in 1912 an article entitled "Feeding Experiments Illustrating the Importance of Accessory Factors in Normal Dietaries,"[1] in which he called attention to the serious effects upon the health of animals which resulted from the absence from their food of certain hitherto unrecognized principles. In the following year Casimir Funk[2] claimed to have isolated a "Factor X" which corresponded to the absent principles described by Hopkins to which he gave the name of Vitamine, in the mistaken belief that the factor in question contained an amino-acid. In spite of its faulty derivation the name caught on, and the word vitamine is now employed to include any of those essential substances which Hopkins unfortunately described under the term "accessory." The experiments of these two observers showed that the absence of the factor now known as the Water-Soluble B. was the cause of the disease known as beriberi, which a Dutch physician, Dr. C. Eykman, had in 1897 associated with the custom of eating polished or decorticated rice by the natives, to the exclusion of all other foods. Beriberi is a disease of the nerves, and it was found that other similar affections of the nerves, pellagra for example, could be experimentally produced by withholding this vitamine, and cured by reinstating it in the dietary; hence the term " anti neuritic " by which it is sometimes known. This factor is essential to the normal growth, development and well-being of young animals. It is present in great
