EO: oy A anes je cat ane eon Cpe Seay 
Further researches are given in a subsequent report by the same author. 
Eight samples of the hair of beriberi cases were procured by him from the 
Singapore Asylum. The analyses made by Mann showed arsenic in the hair from 
three recent cases and none in the five samples from older cases. Ross further 
concludes that: “Whatever the truth may ultimately prove to be, the analyses 
which Prof. Dixon Mann has made seem to suggest that the arsenic, after 
producing the characteristic neuritis, has gradually disappeared from the hair 
in some manner, or has, perhaps, been cut away as convalescence has advanced.” 
Manson (1. ¢.) in referring to the arsenical poisoning theory of beriberi calls 
attention to the fact that the mere presence of traces of arsenic in the hair of 
persons suffering from beriberi could hardly be advanced as a conclusive argument 
of such an origin of the disease. While he is not prepared to deny the frequent 
occurrence of arsenical neuritis in the Tropics, he feels quite certain that what 
is generally considered as beriberi has nothing to do with arsenic and does not 
represent an arsenical neuritis. 
Dunham (1. ¢.) believes that the results of the analyses reported by Ross, 
in which only traces of arsenic were discovered, really oppose the arsenic hypothe- 
sis and do not support it. He points out that out of many hundred beriberi 
cases he encountered but one of herpes, such as is frequently found in arsenical 
intoxication. While arsenic may be and is partaken of by many who are afflicted 
with beriberi as well as by others, the analyses which have been made are 
against the supposition that there is a connection between the two (clinically 
more or less distinet) conditions of arsenical neuritis and beriberi. Upon 
Dunham’s suggestion, arsenic was given to a number of beriberi patients in large 
doses. No favorable result was observed from this treatment, but several cases 
recovered in spite of the heroic doses administered. 
The question whether arsenic is or is not a normal constituent of the 
human body is at present open to argument. 
A. Gautier * claims that in 200 tests he has always found arsenic in the 
thyroid gland and in the skin and its appendages. His observations are con- 
firmed by other French writers, viz: Lapierre, Pagel Imbert, Badel, and Bertrand. 
However, Gautier’s statements are contested and the presence of arsenic as a 
normal constituent of the thyroid and the skin is denied by Hoedelmoser,” Cerny,* 
and Ziemke.” The first-mentioned author, in his tests, adopted Gautier’s tedious 
method of digesting and oxydizing 100 grams of the tissues to be tested with 
30 to 60 cubic centimeters of nitric acid and 1 cubic centimeter of sulphuric 
acid, in order to prevent any possibility of losing arsenic by volatilization. In 
spite of these precautions he could not detect arsenic and consequently refers 
the results of the French observer to impure reagents. 
In order to test the validity of Ross’s claim, hair from some of our 
beriberi patients was analyzed. The samples were taken from the heads 
of ten native Filipinos, as follows: *° One from a fatal case of acute, wet 
*Tdem.: Some More Instances of the Presence of Arsenic in the Hair of 
Early Cases of Beriberi. Brit. Med. Journ. (1902), 2, 837. ' 
* Gautier: Sur Varsenic normal des animaux. Comp. Rend. hebd. Soc. Biol. 
Paris (1902), 54, 727; also Existence normal et origine de Varsenic, ete., ibid., 
1242. 
*T Hoedelmoser: Zeitschr. fiir Physiol. Chemie., 33, 329. 
*Cerny: Ibid., 34, 408. 
* Ziemke: Deutsche Apotheker Ztg. (1902), 17. 
*'The analyses were made in the Chemical Laboratory of this Bureau, the 
first in 1904 by C. L. Bliss, the last nine by L. A. Salinger, to both of whom 
1 wish to express my thanks. 
