BERI-BERI 193 



beri-beri, which made its appearance after we had been 

 in the country for a few months. This is not the place 

 to give a scientific account of beri-beri ; it will suffice to 

 say that it is a disease, of which the most important 

 feature is a degeneration of the nervous system. The 

 results of this are seen in the curious and characteristic 

 walk, loss of sensation in various parts of the body, 

 interference with the circulation and swelling of the 

 body and particularly of the face and limbs, and in very 

 many cases sudden heart failure. It is almost con- 

 clusively proved now that the cause of the disease is an 

 error of diet, and it appears to be certain that the fine 

 milling and polishing of the rice, which forms the staple 

 food of the natives of so many countries in the East, 

 deprives the rice of a very necessary constituent as a 

 food. These people, who grind their own rice and do not 

 mill or polish it finely, but leave a small portion of the 

 husk still adhering to the grain, are free from beri-beri. 

 The disease varies in severity from time to time and 

 from place to place, but at its best it is a very deadly 

 scourge and it causes a very large number of deaths. 

 Occasionally it occurs in an epidemic form, but fortu- 

 nately that did not happen to our expedition. 



In the six months from the beginning of June to 

 the end of November, thirty-nine men shewed definite 

 symptoms of beri-beri, and seven deaths were directly 

 attributable to this cause. Our coolies, who came from 

 the Eastern islands of the Archipelago, were much less 

 susceptible to the disease than were the convicts and 

 soldiers, most of whom came from Java and Sumatra ; 

 these latter contracted the disease in a much more 



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