different times accentuated or aggravated, an 
infinity of modulations may result, so that 
each patient seems to have a different morbid 
disease. 
EDUARDO MEIRELLES studied the last 
epidemic of beriberi in the prison, in 1915 
and although he almost denies the hypothesis 
of its being due to the alimentation, he owns 
that the disease disappeared almost entirely 
after disinfection and after better food was 
given to all the patients who were treated 
in the Prison Infirmary. 
In 1916 I was called upon to present a 
memento of my ideas on the etiology of 
beriberi in the province of Amazonas, to the Ge- 
neral Director of the Board of Health. In this 
work, which by kindness of Dr. CARLOS 
SEIDL was published in the “Jornal do Com- 
mercio”, i tried to prove by my observations 
that beriberi showed a tendency to disap- 
pear since the suppression of the importation 
of rice from the East (polished Rangoon and 
Carolina rice) and by the diminished impor- 
tation of flour and beans, which only used 
to arrive after a long journey and the nstay in 
damp and hot storehouses. 
} take this opportunity to transcribe the 
table of mortality due to beriberi in Manaos 
from 1897 to 1917. 
Years Deaths due to Beriberi| Total Montality 
1897 75 
1898 100 
1899 99 
1900 137 
1901 53 
1902 59 
1903 103 
1904 204 
1905 175 
1906 121 
1907 63 1429 
1908 119 1692 
1909 83 1603 
1910 149 2196 
1911 135 2328 
1912 80 1915 
1913 61 1681 
1914 20 1305 
1915 12 1204 
1916 7 1595 
1917 3 1070 
1918 1 2170 
100 ———— 
Formerly, there were often on the ships 
navegating the Amazonas river, cases of 
death among individuals who felt ill and 
embarked for the capital. With the aid of 
data supplied by the Board of Commerce, I in- 
cluded, in the above-mencioned relatory, com- 
parative tables of the importation of the 
cereals, which form a great part of the food 
of the inhabitants of those regions, and of 
the cases in the capital and on board the 
vessels coming from the interior which were 
registered by the Board of Health of the Port. 
In this paper, I called the attention of the 
Government to the necessity of a legislation 
regulating the improvement of rice, similar 
to that which exists in the Phillippine 
Islands. Convinced, as I was, that our beri- 
beri is the same as Eastern beriberi, I tried 
to prove by documents from SCHAUMANN, 
Japanese and American authors, that what I 
spe QUE 
E ons lag e 
3 Importation of Rice [2 3 8| E 8 É 
E a 6 à | 018 7 
1911 | 20.998 bags 135 | 54 | 189 
1912 | 24.179 « 80 17 97 
1913 | 12.189 « 61 20 81 
1914 5.640 « 20 2 22 
1915 3.639 « 12 4 10 
A E 
= Importation of flour [3 + &|2 4, B| E 
= from Rio Grande |5 $ [ER S| E 
A + sas = 
1911 13.137 bags 135 54 189 
1912 5.563 « 80 17 97 
1913 2.270 « 61 20 81 
1914 EA | « 20 2 22 
1015 2.191 « 12 4 16 
E vmar 
= Importation of foreign | & = £ 3 5 E 5 
Ss beans 5 2 3 Eee E 
pá foal a 
1911 | 77.539 bags 135 54 189 
1912 | 85.021 « 80 17 97 
1913 | 64.021 « 61 20 81 
1914 | 51.610 « 20 D 22 
1915 | 14.687 « 12 4 16 
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