iQisl Casimir Funk 3^9 



tive in human beriberi. Tasawa (4) also concludes that vitamine 

 has no effect in human cases. Segawa (5) considers the avian dis- 

 ease identical with the human, but regards both as due to an intoxi- 

 cation. Why vitamine was found by Japanese authors to be in- 

 effective in human cases is difficult to understand. Possibly this 

 failure was due to selection of cases for treatment that were too 

 advanced in their anatomical changes to be curable. 



Vedder and WilHams (6) prepared a vitamine-fraction from 

 rice poHshings, following my early method, and report very good 

 results in human cases, especially of "dry" beriberi. They re- 

 mark that for the wet form of beriberi, the results were not so 

 conclusive. They assume, therefore, the existence of several vitam- 

 ines, in this connection, a conception which to my mind is pre- 

 mature, since both forms of the disease may be very different in the 

 severity of the Symptoms. 



It is interesting to note the exact composition of diets which 

 have caused the outbreak of beriberi. Dubois and Corin (7) de- 

 scribe a small epidemic in the Belgian Congo, which began 4-5 

 months after a rice diet was instituted. The population there received 

 a weekly addition of f resh meat to the rice diet, in a quantity which 

 apparently was insufficient to prevent the disease. Very instructive 

 was the outbreak of alleged beriberi on the converted cruiser " Kron- 

 prinz Wilhelm," a large number of the crew having taken the dis- 

 ease, although apparently they subsisted on a normal diet. A very 

 large amount of frozen meat was available, which had been taken 

 from captured ships from Argentine. It seems stränge, at first 

 thought, that beriberi occurred under these conditions. No cases of 

 beriberi were observed, however, among the officers of the ship. 

 Careful inquiry showed that the officers received daily, in addition 

 to the ordinary food, a certain amount of fresh fruit. This latter 

 fact classifies the disease, it seems to me, as so-called ship-heriheri, 

 a disease on the borderline between beriberi and scurvy, but more 

 like the latter, and occurs on ships where sufficient quantities of 

 fresh provisions are not available. 



Avian beriberi (Polyneuritis gallinarum) . A series of papers 

 dealt with the pathology of avian beriberi. Vedder and Clark (8) de- 

 scribed an excellent study of Polyneuritis gallinarum. Schnyder (9) 



