1471 
tending to show separately the influence of drenching and that 
of subcutaneous injection upon the development of the disease in 
starving animals. 
Our researches were controlled by simple starvation experiments. 
Beforehand it is desirable to observe that such experiments have been 
carried out by many previous workers, who apparently had all been 
struck by the fact that with a monotonous diet (e.g. polished rice) 
most fowls showed a disinclination to eat and lost greatly in weight. 
Several observers argued that the animals under discussion do not, 
in some cases, show the typical disease conditions, but suecumb 
through pure inanition. Likewise the special starvation experiments 
of a number of experimenters on polyneuritis yielded, till recently. 
only negative results. (Ekman Le. Sakaxt’), Hotst*), SHiGA and 
Kusama ®), Fraser and Stanton *), BRADDON and Cooper l.c., Funk ®, 
Tasawa®), Masayo Sreawa ‘) 
Years ago already Gruns Le, in view of my experiments, 
accounted for the non-appearance of polyneuritis in consequence 
of deprivation of food by asserting that starvation causes the protein 
of the muscles to be katabolized and that, together with this protein, 
protective substances are liberated for the benefit of the nerves. 
Feeding, on the other hand, produces a higher degree of metabolism, 
and exalts the consumption of the said substances; if, therefore, the 
food is poor in such substances, it cannot meet the greater demand 
and the disease consequently declares itself. 
Our drenching experiments rested on the statement corroborated 
by many researches, that mere deprivation of food does not lead to 
polyneuritis. Nevertheless, when entering upon our investigation, 
we undertook some control-experiments. This, after all, turned out 
to be all the more requisite as, in the meantime, I had taken 
cognizance of the researches of CHAMBERLAIN, BLOOMBERGH and 
KirBourNe ®), which had escaped my notice through having been 
published in a periodical difficult to get hold of. Contrary to 
the experiments referred to above, their researches yielded some 
1) Sei-i-Kwai, 31—3—1903. 
*) Journ. o. Hyg. Vol. 7, p. 619, 1907. 
5) Mitteil. d. Beriberi-Studien-Kommission, Tokyo, 1911. 
4) Studies from the Institute for medic. research Federated Malay States N°. 12, 
Singapore, 1911. 
5) Z. f. physiol. Chemie, Bnd. 89, S. 378, 1914. 
6) Z.-f.-exp. Path. u. Ther., Bnd. 17, S..27, 1914. 
7) Virncuow’s. Archiv., Bnd. 215, S. 404, 1914. 
8) Pimp. Journ. of Science, Sect. B, vol. 6, p. 177, 1911. 
