The term "vitamine" was first used 101 years ago in 1912. What were later to be known as vitamin-deficiency diseases, such as scurvy, beriberi, night blindness, xeropthalmia, pellagra, pernicious anemia and rickets, had plagued the world since the existence of written records. The book contains 10 chapters and traces each vitamin from an unidentified factor to its discovery and synthesis