BAERS; en re 
men of the country such as TORRES HOMEM 
MACEDO SOARES, A. FARIA, SARAIVA 
and others. On this occasion, LE ROY DE 
MÉRICOURT thus expressed his opinion: 
Beriberi breaks out amongst the crews and 
passengers of ships after long long journeys, 
amongst soldiers after a campaign, miners, 
prisoners, orphans (of course he is refering 
to homes) especiatly amongst the poorer 
classes, wno have been living on a meagre 
and uniform diet, which either from circums- 
tances or for the sake of economy is ,insuf- 
ficient for their needs. 
MIRANDA AZEVEDO was struck by this 
passage and the allusions to the forms ob- 
served in Paraguay, and encouraged by his 
own observations, was not afraid to criticize 
the most celebrated medical men of the day 
in his thesis and affirmed that insufficient 
mourishment is the cause of beriberi. He 
says:—“I understand by insufficient nourish- 
ment, not only the lack in quantity of food 
necessary to keep one in health, but also the 
want of variety of food, a pernicious unifor- 
mity, for varied nourishment is imperiousiy 
called for to sustain the organism. He after- 
wards says “Reading and study of the diffe- 
rent hypotheses as to the origin of beriberi 
induced me to pay attention to popular be- 
liefs and to think that rice is the cause of 
beriberi in Brazil and in India. 
The only calss of diseases in which this 
strange one can be classitied, is that of the 
diseases called, by JACCOUD and other 
modern pathologists, constitutional distrophy 
on account of the etiology and the special 
symptoms, 
JAYME SILVADO wrote some very in- 
teresting memoirs of Brazil in 1907: ““Beriberi 
in the Navy of Brazil”. In spite of his being 
influenced by the theory of infection he gave 
some good advice to the Superior Adminis- 
tration of the Navy, which, had it been taken, 
would have hastened the disappearance of 
the disease amongst our sailors. Referring 
to the question of rations he speaks of the 
sailors throwing their bread into the sea 
either because it was bad or because they 
did not like it. He also says: As to the 
food, our rations are not what they ought 
to be neither as to quantity nor as to the 
way of cooking the food. The sailors do 
not get good food as the purveyors want to 
make as much profit as they can and pur- 
vey bad food for the price of good. With 
great discernment JAYME SILVADO, in his 
monograph, calls attention to the monotony 
“of the food and the great want of variety 
in same. 
Speaking of the Indian corn meal given 
on board ship (1907) three times a week, as 
obrigatory food, he says: “Only people who 
are used to Indian corn meal can like it, and 
the kind sent on board ship is enough to 
make anyone sick of it. Jt is a already sour 
when provided, and gets even more sour in 
the hot damp holds of the ship, becoming 
absolutely uneatable.?” 
In this work, Dr. SILVADO draws the 
attention of the government to the food in 
the fapanese Navy, where by the advice of 
TAKAKI, barley-meal was added to the ra- 
tions, so as to counteract the bad effects of 
rice. SILVADO refers to the communication 
read at the Congress in Paris in 1900 by 
Baron SANEIOSKI, and though he did not 
believe all that was therein, and did not 
believe beriberi was caused by eating rice, 
he avows that bad rice brings on polyneu- 
ritis. 
He shows however a tendency towards 
adopting the nourishment theory, by giving 
the statistics which show the difference m 
the Jaanese Navy before and after the adop- 
tion of TAKAKI’S theory. 
Statistics of the decrease of beriberi 
beginning in 1884, when the changes 
were made in the rations of the Japane- 
se Navy. 
BERIBERI. 
Years 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 
Cases 1725 1163 1929 1236 718 41 3) 0 0 3 
As we see from these statistics, if the 
necessary attention had been given to them, 
