1476 
case of polynenritis in a monkey, observed by me and for which 
I am indebted to Vorpmrman, I reported as long since as 1888). 
The animal had, indeed, been fed chiefly on boiled rice and bananas, 
but it moved about among sufferers from beri-beri. This experience, 
therefore, did not yield decisive evidence to establish the influence 
of feeding. 
Man also is naturally less liable to polyneuritis than birds, so that, 
besides the diet, other unknown, or insufficiently known, factors 
generally come into play to produce beri-beri. Nevertheless it has 
been shown, by otber experimenters also, that there is sufficient 
likeness in polyneuritis gallinarum to beri-beri, to apply with due 
caution the results obtained in the study of the one disease also to 
the other. 
We next have to consider the question in how far the feeding 
influences the consumption of antineuritic substances, and, in conse- 
quence of this, also modifies the demand for these substances in 
the organism. As already stated, Funk, as well as Brappon and 
Coorrr arrived at the conclusion that it is especially the carbohydrates 
of the food that heighten the demand for a supply of vitamins in 
the body. Now it is a fact, as we observed before, that an increase 
of carbohydrates in the food helps on the outbreak of the disease. 
The question, bowever is, whether an increment of the amount of 
fat or protein, without a proportionate increase of the amount of 
vitamins, does not equally promote the outbreak of polyneuritis. In 
view of his experiments on this head, Funk believes that, in this 
respect, the effect of casein and of fat is less unfavourable than 
that of starch and sugar; if, however, we look at his data, and if 
we consider the marked individual differences, occurring with the 
same food, we can accede to this view at the farthest for the fat. 
Over against Funk, SCHAUMANN’) observes that polyneuritis can be 
produced through food, rich in protein and poor in carbohydrate, 
provided there be not any or hardly any vitamins in it. 
We have made feeding-experiments with aleuronat, a powderlike 
protein preparation, a waste-product from wheatstarch factories. 
The procedure of its preparation involves a thorough washing 
with water, so that it may be expected to be vitamin-poor, if not 
vitamin-free, as for all we know about them, vitamins are highly 
soluble in water. Our prepar ation still contained some amylum ; 
however 90°/, of the dry substance was made up of protein, as 
1) Geneesk. Tijdschr. v. Ned. Indië, Dl. 28, 1888. 
2) Arch. f. Schiffs- u. Tropenhyg. Bnd. 19, S. 393, 1915. 
