Research on vitamin C spans continents and centuries. Long before Dr James Linde published his classic, "Treatise on the Scurvy", in 1753, other doctors had been extolling the virtues of citrus fruit for a great many maladies, most of which, in hindsight, were benefitted. For instance, from Allen's "Practice of Physick", London, 1740, Vol.2, p.21:
"The juice of lemons and oranges are antiscorbutics never enough to be commended. And, without boasting, I can affirm that I have never observed in my whole practice so many happy effects by any one simple medicine as by lemons."So it is not surprising that 20th Century research would verify astute 18th Century observations and determine the factor, ascorbic acid, responsible for those "happy effects". This ascorbic acid molecule, now commonly called vitamin C, is an extremely simple combination of just carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, having a very low molecular weight. Its very simplicity explains why it has found its way into literally hundreds of metabolic pathways within our bodies, and why a more than "ample" amount of vitamin C can turn such a large variety of maladies into those happy effects.
Doctors Archie Kalokerinos, Glen Dettman, and Ian Dettman, have sorted through many 1000s of research articles, books, and personal communications, written this century about vitamin C and have extracted the cream - those that most clearly and convincingly show how vitamin C performs its "miracles". Most of these articles are exciting to read, and some are quite moving. Over the decades it has been a great mystery to me how most medical doctors are so slow to take full advantage of vitamin C's remarkable powers. I believe this book may help convince the skeptics by inundating them with many important, historical, informative, and yet readable, articles from the past. However this will take several more years. Back in 1974 I had the pleasure of writing the Foreword to Dr Kalokerinos' book, "Every Second Child", yet even today in 1991, none of the many Crib Death organizations will even discuss vitamin C. Perhaps they will change their minds after reading Dr Ronald Kilgour's unsolicited letter in this present volume.
But we're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here in America, even our nutritionally backward government and medical associations are beginning to recommend supplements such as beta carotene, niacin, and fiber. Just a few years ago they were insisting a good diet was quite sufficient. Whether they will ever bite the bullet and recommend vitamin C is a question the answer to which is fraught with politics, reputations, face-saving, and the almighty dollar. It will be interesting to see if this book, for which I'm honored to have been invited to write the Foreword, will turn the tide for vitamin C.
Since I [OF] lived only a few miles from the Linus Pauling
Institute in Palo Alto, California, Dr Glen Dettman asked me
to be the liaison between him and Prof Pauling. The following
letter to Dr Dettman from me accompanied this treasured, but
long-awaited, Pauling Foreword.
Wow, if this foreword doesn't help you sell a few books, nothing will! I think it was well worth the wait.
I guess you now have the decision as to whether to Anglicize it or not. For instance, do you change "crib death" to "cot death"?
Also, over here, we always put the punctuation before the close-quote. But in England, and I suppose Australia, you use common sense. In the last sentence of the first paragraph, he has " . . . as by lemons." Now, you'd do the same in England since the quotation covers the whole sentence - and that makes sense and happens to agree with us. But the first sentence of the next paragraph ends with "happy effects." - the American way - which makes no sense because the close-quote refers only to the two words and not to the sentence. The Brits would put " . . . effects".
You'll probably spot a few more.
I think I'd leave it the way he wrote it, with the Americanisms adding to the luster of his genius.
Cheers,
Oscar [Falconi]
(15 June 2000, from detailed notes dated 10 October 1991)
["Vitamin C - Nature's Miraculous Healing Missile!" was chosen
as the title. Also, Glen Dettman asked Archie
Kalokerinos if he'd mind if he put his (Glen's) name as the 1st author,
since he'd done most of the work. Archie of course agreed. So the
final sequence became "Glen Dettman, Archie Kalokerinos, Ian
Dettman".]
Dr Glen Dettman (1921-1994) had asked his good friend
Linus Pauling (1901-1994) to write the Foreword. Pauling agreed,
but had, even at 90, a tough schedule. He was, as his
secretary, Dorothy Munro (1916-2001), put it, "swamped". For
instance, Pauling
attended at least 5 functions around February 1991 honoring his 90th
birthday.
As time passed, the Foreword never got written. So Glen
asked
me if I could gently prod Prof. Pauling, which I did with a phone call
to Dorothy. That was about April 1991. Nothing was done.
In June
Glen was anxious for the Foreword and airmailed me a 470-page (typed,
double-spaced) draft of the manuscript to give to Pauling. I made a copy
and gave him the original (which he never read - see below). Still nothing
was done and Glen asked me,
around late August, to do another gentle prodding.
Well, Pauling
had just broken his ankle, and it looked very bad for the Foreword, so I
asked Dorothy Munro, mostly to emphasize Glen's rush, if I could help at
all - if maybe I could write a suggested Foreword. Well, surprise of
surprises, Dorothy said, "Oh would you?". I of course said I'd be happy
to, and the next day I sent her a page very similar to the above
Foreword. I also enclosed xeroxes of the 1740 reference and the old book's
title page from Volume 2. Only a few changes were made to my suggested
Foreword
("face-saving" instead of "ego", "medical establishment" instead of
"American Heart Association"). I thought my "simple powers" was a clever
tie-in with the "simple molecule" - but Pauling's change to "remarkable
powers" gives us an insight into his certainty of vitamin C's
capabilities.
The revised version of the Foreword was typed up by Dorothy and faxed to
Glen, finally, on 27 Sept 1991.
Glen, though, suspected I had a greater than passive role in all
this, since in a
previous letter to him, with suggestions for improving the book, I had
mentioned that he must certainly include the verbatim Kilgour testimonial
given on the Australian "This is Your Life" for Archie Kalokerinos. But
Glen had already
included it in the draft. So when I saw it in the draft, I included it
in the Foreword. Even so, when
Glen saw Dr Kilgour mentioned in the Foreword, he thought it more than a
coincidence between my interest in the testimonial and its inclusion in
the
Foreword. In a phone call with Glen, where he brought this up, I told him
Pauling must have read it in the draft of the manuscript. This may have
satisfied Glen. Actually, Pauling never saw the draft. After giving it to
Dorothy, I started reading it - and after making over 250
corrections in the
first 30 pages, I phoned Dorothy NOT to give it to Pauling. He would've
been greatly annoyed. It seems
Glen's highly incompetent secretary, Maureen, just couldn't get anything
right. Some of the blame, though, must be Glen's since he was under great
stress and taking as
many as 20 nitroglycerin tablets a day for heart
pain.
Incidentally, Ronald Kilgour, an MD in Western Australia,
recently died of an alcohol-related malady.
====================================================
(PLEASE NOTE: I
received
the following email on 17 January 2008:
"To Oscar Falconi -
Ron Kilgour was a friend of mine in Perth for 22 years. He did NOT die of
an 'alcohol related illness'. He died in the ICU of St.John's hospital,
Perth, on 31 January 1992, of acute myeloblastic leukaemia. Perhaps you
could correct the 'Wholesale Nutrition' website." [Sender's name to be
added if permitted])
(Falconi's response: I immediately emailed Dr. Archie Kalokerinos, who
knew Dr. Kilgour, and Dr.Ian Dettman, son of the late Dr. Glen Dettman,
who also knew Dr. Kilgour. My 19 Jan 2008 email follows:
"Dear Archie and Ian,
At the end of www.nutri.com/wn/lpfc.html I stated that Dr.
Ronald Kilgour died of an alcohol related malady. Now, for the life of me,
I can't remember, after over a decade, where I got that "fact", if it's
indeed a fact. But I
surely wouldn't have quoted it if I hadn't considered the source reliable.
I'd appreciate any information either of you might have.
Thanks,
Oscar"
[Neither Archie Kalokerinos nor Ian Dettman could help.]
Although the original email, asking to correct the website,
is very persuasive, if anyone knows more facts about Dr. Kilgour's
death,
please email me at wn@nutri.com - informative responses will appear here.
END OF NOTE - 10 Feb. 2008)
====================================================
Well, the draft was such a mess that, even though the Foreword was in
Glen's hands in Sept. 1991, the book wasn't published until 1993. Both
Linus Pauling and Glen Dettman died within days of each other in 1994. We
were at first told that
Glen died at breakfast of heart failure, but several years later his wife,
Nancy, stated that he died while they were having sex.
Now that both Linus Pauling and Glen Dettman have been dead over 6
years, I feel it's time to set the record straight as well as adding a few
interesting footnotes to the history of vitamin C.
This Historical Note is, of course, not meant to take any credit
from Linus Pauling. He is an American Hero, and
being pressed for time, at age 90, with a broken ankle, a great man is
allowed certain liberties. I
have since learned that Forewords are quite often ghost-written. But since
Pauling knew the final Foreword would be above his signature, it should be
assumed every word, and every thought, met with his complete approval.
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