WELL, that the disease is not infectious but 
due to diet. 
7. It is not probable that the patients 
could have been infected through the food, 
as it was always freshly cooked at a 
temperature to which only a sporogenous 
microbe could resist. 
Besides this, if the infection had been 
introduced by the food, it would have been 
the same in all groups. 
8. None of the rice used fermented, a fact 
which excludes the action of certain bacteria. 
9. There is no proof to suggest the idea 
of beriberi being an infectious disease and it 
is certain that in the Phillipine Islands beri- 
beri is due to a prolonged diet in which 
certain substances necessary to the normal 
physiological functions of human organism 
are wanting. 
10. The disease studied was really beri- 
beri as proved by the autopsy of the patient 
who died. 
11. More observations should be made 
on the chemical properties and nature of 
the substance which prevents the disease; 
from a pratical point of view however the 
etiology is known; prevention and cure are 
easy. 
12. To prevent and cure the disease in 
man, nothing is wanted but liberal nourish- 
ment of the best quality adapted to the phy- 
siological necessities of the organism. 
COBB, in a report on North Borneo 
written in 1916, says that beriberi has been 
long known there, but there has never been 
a serious epidemic. Those who are most 
liable to contract beriberi, are the poor, 
opiumsmokers and coolies employed in 
the rubber and tobacco plantations. A minu- 
tious investigation of the slight epidemics 
among them revealed that they were always 
arising from deficient nourishment and in 
two cases fromthe use of Saigon rice. COBB 
speaks of the great trouble there always is 
in the Eastto get the natives to use unpo- 
lished rice. The disease could have been eli- 
minated. Everything depends on the food of 
he working classes. 
104 
In 1917 CHICK and HUME made an 
interesting communication to the LONDON 
SOCIETY FOR TROPICAL MEDICINE 
AND HYGIENE about beriberi amongst the 
English troops during the siege of Kut-el- 
Amara. The disease entirely disappeared with 
the change of food. 
The British, who at first received a ration 
of white flour, afterwards received only a 
third or a half of this ration which was 
substituted by barley-meal or coarse wheat 
flour. They were protected against scurvy, 
being fed on ample rations of horseflesh. 
The Indian soldiers were supplied with ce- 
reals and beans rich in anti-beriberi vitami- 
nes. The Indians refused the horseflesh. and 
as there were no vegetables nor fruit in the 
region, they became an easy prey to scurvy. 
The authors made the following deductions: 
1. To prevent beriberi, it is imperious 
that the germen (embryo) and the bran 
should not be separated from the flour used 
for making bread and biscuits for the sold- 
iers on active service. 
2. This is still more important when the 
troops are far away from all resources of 
fresh food, and live chiefly on tinned food 
which is deprived of vitamines by sterilisa- 
tion at high temperatures. 
3. To prevent scurvy, ifthere be no pos- 
sibility of their obtaining fresh fruit and ve- 
getables, they ought to be given seeds of 
leguminous plants which are already begin- 
ning to sprout. 
It has been clearly proved by many of 
these who have studied the matter and by 
many experiments made on man, in the Phi- 
lippines and in Malacca, that the origin of 
beriberi lies in the alimentation. One more 
argument must be cited here. I refer to 
the efficacious cure with Katjangidjo. This 
kind of beans from which HUSCHOLFF 
POLL extracted an acid substance which he 
calls X-acid, is not only useful to prevent the 
disease but also to cure it. 
Vitamines are still very difficult and ex- 
pensive to extract but the alcoholic extract 
of rice-bran can be given as a curative of 
