ACCESSORY FOOD-FACTORS 45 



The sailors in Norwegian merchant ships were 

 formerly fed on bread made of whole-meal rye, but 

 a humanitarian movement was set on foot to provide 

 them with better bread, i.e. white wheaten loaves. 

 Soon after this innovation, ship beriberi became 

 common among the crews of Norwegian merchant 

 ships. On board a certain ship the crew were pro- 

 vided with the new white bread, but the captain re- 

 fused to have anything to do with such new-fangled 

 notions for himself, and always took to sea a supply 

 of the old rye flour. He never suffered with beriberi, 

 and was, furthermore, able to recover his crew when 

 they became affected, by giving them a loan from his 

 store. When, however, his supply began to get low, 

 and he foresaw that there would not be enough for 

 himself, he stopped his dole, and in due course beri- 

 beri broke out again among the crew. 



It was formerly believed that it was the skin or bran 

 of the wheat or rice grains the presence of which 

 prevented beriberi, but Miss Chick and I have been 

 able to show that, though the bran has virtue, the 

 embryo, or tiny plant, called by millers the "germ", 

 is far more potent. In all modern processes of wheat 

 milling this germ is taken off with the bran ; it does 

 not enter into the pure white flour at all, but passes 

 away in the offals. It is very rich in ferments, which 

 interfere with the keeping properties of the flour, and 

 it is consequently banned by the millers. In the Hovis 

 and some other processes of milling the germ is 

 cooked, which makes it able to be kept, and it is then 

 returned to the flour. But, apart from special ways of 

 treatment, the modern roller method of milling de- 

 prives the flour of all its anti-beriberi vitamine, and 

 we should be in a very bad position indeed dietetically 

 were we not able to rely on other food-stuffs for our 

 supply of this vitamine. 



