BERIBERI 281 



sterilized rice and sterilized beans during a period of 43 days; the sub- 

 jects objected to the food, and the experiment had to be terminated. 



The second group of the accessible data pertains to the composition 

 of the diet leading to beriberi. Chamberlain (872) investigated the 

 personnel of the native Philippine Scouts comprising 5200 men. Of 

 these, 618 developed beriberi in 1908, and 558 in 1909. The food 

 leading to this outbreak consisted of 340 grams fresh beef or its 

 equivalent of bacon, canned meat or fish, 560 grams white rice, 225 

 grams flour or bread and 225 grams potatoes or onions. When the 

 diet was improved in 1910 by the addition of more beans and unpol- 

 ished rice, the number of cases decreased to 6. The cases described 

 by Riddel, Smith and Igravidez (I.e. 852), in Porto Rico, developed 

 after three months on a diet consisting of rice, vegetables and canned 

 meat. From the report of Hehir (I.e. 867), we see that there were 

 numerous cases of beriberi among the English troops at Kut-el-Amara 

 on a diet of horse-meat, canned meat and white flour. The siege 

 lasted over 4| months, and this time sufficed for the development of 

 the disease. 



In confirmation of the author's findings (I.e. 559) and those of 

 Braddon and Cooper (I.e. 561) on pigeons, Braddon (I.e. 866) made 

 some observations in the Mediterranean war zone on the dependence 

 of beriberi on the composition of the food. This investigator drew 

 up a table, which we shall reproduce, giving the composition of two 

 diets capable of producing beriberi, compared with two other diets 

 which did not result in beriberi. The content of vitamine B was 



V 



calculated on the basis of 100 for wheat germ. The quotient ^ 



-A. 



shows the relationship between foodstuffs containing and those lack- 

 ing vitamine B. 



This method of calculation is obviously not very exact, but it 

 gives us an insight into the relationship between protein and carbo- 

 hydrates; in beriberi-producing diets the quotient was much smaller. 

 It is also interesting to note that Braddon, although the individuals 

 were still in good condition, suspected beriberi, because of the lack 

 of reflexes, a suspicion which was later confirmed This showed 

 definitely that beriberi may be recognized prior to the appearance of 

 characteristic symptoms. 



