490 Journal of Agricultural Research voi.v, no-h 



In the chronic form fatal results may not occur for a considerable time. 

 The symptoms persist if the feed is not changed, and the pig appears to 

 develop a certain degree of immunity to the effects of the disease. His 

 condition, however, is continually, although slowly, declining. Pigs 

 suffering from this form of the disease may live for a year or more on a 

 cottonseed-meal ration. 



On post-mortem examination, pigs which have died from the effects of 

 cottonseed-meal feeding show large quantities of fluid in the abdominal 

 and thoracic cavities and in the pericardial sac. The kidneys, liver, 

 spleen, and small intestines are usually congested. In some cases the 

 membrane lining the stomach is eroded. The lungs are very edematous, 

 especially in pigs which have died from sudden acute attacks. The heart 

 is enlarged. 



SIMILARITY OF SYMPTOMS OF COTTONSEED POISONING AND OF 

 BERIBERI 



These conditions bear a striking resemblance to those seen in the 

 disease known as beriberi in man, which, according to Vedder,^ results 

 "from faulty metabolism * * >i: and is directly caused by the 

 deficiency of certain vitamines in the food." 



Beriberi in human beings is usually caused by a diet of highly milled rice 

 and is never known to result from a diet of rice from which the pericarp 

 and aleurone layer of the grain have not been removed. However, the 

 disease may be caused by diets of which rice forms no part whatever. 

 For example, a diet of bread or macaroni alone made from highly milled 

 wheat flour will produce beriberi. Birds (chickens and pigeons) are 

 generally used in the laboratory study of beriberi because they readily 

 develop the chronic or "dry" form when fed on a diet ot highly milled 

 rice for a sufficient time, but they will also develop the disease if fed on an 

 exclusive diet of white wheat bread. 



Beriberi in pigs is not frequently reported in the literature on the sub- 

 ject. Braddon ^ reports, without details, the case of a pig fed on polished 

 rice. The pig developed paralysis in about a month and died suddenly. 

 It is believed that until this year this was the only case of the kind re- 

 corded. 



EXPERIMENTS TO COMPARE EFFECTS OF FEEDING POLISHED RICE 

 AND COTTONSEED MEAL 



On August 31, 191 5, the writers began a series of experiments to deter- 

 mine (a) whether the "wet" or acute form of beriberi could be produced 

 in pigs on a diet of polished rice, and (6) whether the disease heretofore 

 called "cottonseed poisoning" in pigs is not really beriberi.^ Four pigs 



1 Vedder, E. B. Beriberi, p. viii. New York, 1913. 



' Braddon. W. L. The Cause and Prevention of Beri-Beri. p. 355. London, New York, 1907. 



' It should be noced that Withers and Carruth made no extensive use of pigs in their investigations oa 

 gossypol. (Withers, W. A., and Carruth, F. E. Gossypol, the toxic substance in cottonseed meal. In 

 Jour. Agr. Research, v. 5, no. 7. P- 261-288, pi. 25-26. 1915) 



