1475 
Tzuzukt'), Tasawa Le, Cooper’), also recorded a similar experience. 
Nor must it be forgotten that in the case of developing beri-beri 
the diet is never so exclusive as the food (rice or sago) from 
which in fowls and pigeons generally emaciation ensues. If, therefore, 
we wish to make a comparative study of beri-beri and polyneuritis 
gallinarum, we are fully justified in watching the neuritis, as developed 
in animals that have been given some accessory diet, rather than 
the aspect of the disease as produced in animais after a simple diet, 
say polished rice or sago. 
CHAMBERLAIN and VeppER*) have pointed ont that, whereas starving 
fowls are liable to develop polyneuritis, beri-beri, nor anything 
like it was never observed in long-fasting men. They maintain, 
however, that this does not go against the conception that, etiologi- 
cally, the two diseases are on a par. They argue that the period 
of incubation in beri-beri lasts at least 87 days and that it is contrary 
to all reasonable expectation for a man to live without food for 
that length of time. In addition to this argument we should also 
like to call attention to the undeniable fact that it is far easier to 
produce polyneuritis in birds than in mammals. Birds are evidently 
far more predisposed, which, according to some, is due to their 
higher metabolism, and, consequently, to a severer drain upon their 
vitamin store. However, the hypothesis propounded here, is in our 
opion inconsistent with the fact, that fowls, for such small animals, 
can persist in fasting for a remarkably long time. 
Pursuing my line of research, a number of investigators have 
endeavoured to produce experimentally polyneurites in monkeys by 
the administration of a one-sided diet (commonly polished rice). Some 
of them, as Marcnoux and SALmMBpni‘), SCHAUMANN °), GIBSON Lc, SHIGA 
and Kusama l.c, Tsuzoxr l.e., NaGayo and Furu®) succeeded in some, 
but by no means in all cases. Tsuzvk1, for instance, failed with Japanese 
and Singapore monkeys and according to NaGayo the occurrence of 
a beri beri-like affection in monkeys on rice is very rare. Others, 
as Noi’), also CHAMBERLAIN, BrLOOMBERGH and KiLBourse Le, moreover 
Fraser and STANTON le, ‘obtained, like myself, only negative results 
in spite of experiments extended over a series of months. The only 
1) Mitteil. d. Beriberi-Studien-Kommission, Tokyo, 1911, S. 289. 
2) Journ. o. Hyg. Vol. 12, p. 436, 1912. 
5) Pumpe. Journ. of Science, Sect. B, Vol. 6 p. 177, 191. 
4) Bulletin Soc. Path. exot. 31 Oct. 1903. 
5) Transactions Soc. trop. Med. and Hyg. Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 59, 1911. 
6) Verhandl. d. Japan. pathol. Gesellsch., If Tagung 1913. 
7) Bulletin Soc. Path. exot., p. 315, 1911. 
95 
Proceedings Royal Acad. Amsterdam. Vol. XVIII. 
