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made direct experiments on men for the first 
time. These belonged to an agricultural es- 
tablishment in Malay. 300 javese were di- 
vided in to 2 groups. To group “A” polished 
rice was given as principal food; to group 
“B” was given rice in the husk, brown rice, 
as principal diet. At the end of more or less 
90 to 100 days, cases of typical beriberi ap- 
peared in the group “A” whilst group “B” 
remained quite well. If group “A” had its 
diet changed, the patients got well and beri- 
beri disappeared. Several subjects from group 
“B” were mixed with those of group “A”; 
if they ate brown rice, they remained healthy, 
but if they ate polished rice, they presented 
symptoms of the malady after some time. 
Thus was proved the non contagiousness 
of the disease and its alimentary origin. All 
precautions were taken, to avoid any error 
in the observations. At the same time, many 
well known scientists made the same expe- 
riments in animals and the conclusion of the 
etiological and symptomatic identity of the 
two diseases was reached. 
FLETCHER in 1909 treated 123 inmates 
of the Kuaia Lumpur Lunatic Asylum with 
polished rice and 123 with rough rice; in 
the first group there were 43 cases of 
beriberi, in the second none at all. The two 
groups changed from one building to the 
other but no case occurred in those who ate 
brown rice. Then they changed the rice food 
of each group. No new cases arose amongst 
the first group but there were cases amon- 
gst the second group, then feeding on po- 
lished rice. 
In the Health Bulletin no. 12 published by 
the Department of the Interior, of the Ameri- 
can Government in the Phillipines, the same 
results were obtained amongst the Ameri- 
can scouts. There were very many cases 
amongst these soldiers. In one year there 
was a return of 600cases. After giving them 
brown rice, the disease diminished and there 
were no new cases. The Governor then de- 
creed that no polished rice was to be used 
in the Government Institutions. 
And says the report, the disease disap- 
peared everywhere. It was then proved 
that the few cases that occurred ensued 
from some department not having exactly 
obeyed the rule about polished rice. In this 
sanie Bulletin the government asked all the 
better classes to use unpolished rice, to give 
an example to the uneducated classes. The 
Board of Health proposed a tax of 4 cen- 
tavos on the kilo of polished rice, so as to 
exclude the poor from making use of it; 
if the richer people used it there was not so 
much danger for them as they have other 
foods sufficiently nutritious to prevent the 
rice from harming them. 
In 1913 STRONG and CROWELL pu- 
blished the result of their investigations in 
Spanish language and this work is so ri- 
gorous ly scientific that I consider it as the 
greatest and most definite argument with 
regard to the alimentary etiology of beri- 
beri. The principal value of this work lies 
in the record of experiments on man, inves- 
tigating the problem from all points of vue 
an thus completing the studies of FRAZER, 
STANTON and FLETCHER. Convinced 
that MANSON, SCHEUBE, LE DANTEC, 
MARCHOUX WRIGHT, CASTELLANI, 
SHIBAYAMA did not bring forward suffi- 
cient proofs of their theory of infection, 
STRONG and CROWELL tried to reprodu- 
ce the illness, excluding the influence of spe- 
cific micro-organisms. They acknowledged 
the importance of the studies of polyneuritis 
gallinarum as the experiments on the birds 
were very clear and elucidated manv pro- 
blems in the aetiology and the cure of beri- 
beri. They thought however that without 
identicai experiments made on man, nothing 
absolute could be positively affirmed from a 
scientific point of view. These wonderful 
experiments were made in the prison of Bi- 
libid in Manilla, in which the hygienic con- 
ditions are almost ideal. With the Gover- 
nor’s permission, a certain number of crimi- 
nals under sentence of capital punishment 
were chosen for the experiments. 
To these men, STRONG and CROWELL 
explained with the utmost frankness, in the 
