280 



THE VITAMINES 



MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF AND DIETS LEADING TO BERIBERI 



It is very important for the proper understanding of the nature of 

 beriberi to know the composition of the diet leading to its occurrence.. 

 This is the more important since a number of investigators have 

 reached the conclusion that the diet of their patients was completely 

 satisfactory, from the viewpoint of nutritional studies. As for this, 

 we may bring to our support the slight amount of exact data available 

 from two sources. On the one hand, we know the composition of the 

 diet in a few instances where the disease has been produced experi- 

 mentally in man; on the other, we have the reports of a few beriberi 

 outbreaks, in which the composition of the diet was accurately noted. 



In the first series, there is the work of Fraser and Stanton (I.e. 47), 

 who produced beriberi in healthy Japanese coolies on a diet made up 

 almost exclusively of white rice. Here, 80 to 90 days passed before 

 the disease made its appearance. Another, and far more important, 

 investigation was that of Strong and Crowell (869). They conducted 

 experiments with volunteers from a prison in the Philippines. The 

 subjects were divided into three groups, each group receiving a 

 certain amount of fish, lard, bananas, potatoes and sugar. Rice, in 

 three different forms, was the chief component of the diet. 



From this, it is evident that unpolished rice can practically prevent 

 the occurrence of beriberi, though the vitamine B content of this 

 kind of rice barely exceeds the necessary amount. The first symp- 

 toms were noted after 60 days. Caspari and Moszkowski (870) 

 reported an experiment upon Moszkowski himself. He lived 230 

 days on white rice and other vegetable food, without meat, eggs or 

 cheese, and developed mild beriberi, but with cardiac symptoms and 

 considerable nitrogen loss. On the addition of rice polishings, the 

 symptoms promptly disappeared. It seems likely that that diet 

 contained small amounts of vitamine B, since the development of the 

 disease was so long delayed. Fraga (871) conducted an experiment 

 with nine prisoners. He was unable to produce the disease with 



