SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXII. No. 547 



SCIENCE: 



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THREE SHIPS WITH BERIBERI OUTBREAKS SHOWN TO 

 HAVE HAD EXTENSIVE FORMATION OF CARBONIC 

 OXIDES DURING THE VOYAGE -ANALYSIS OF BERI- 

 BERI BLOOD — CONCLUSION THAT BERIBERI IS 

 NOTHING BUT CARBONIC POISONING OF THE 

 BLOOD. 



BY ALBERT S. ASHMEAD, M D. , NEW "iORK, N.T. 



In Science. Nov. 18, 1893, I contributed an account of the out- 

 break of beriberi on board the bark " H. B. Cann," from Ilo-ilo, 

 Philippine Islands, vvith a cargo of raw sugar. That cargo fer- 

 mented during the trip, stifling fumes filled the ship, and the 

 beriberi outbreak was considered the consequence of this state of 

 things. 



In an article which will shortly appear in the Medical News, en- 

 titled "Investigation of the Outbreak of Beriberi on Board the 

 Bark 'Pax' from Ceylon with a Cargo of Graphite," I show that, 

 from the deficient packing of 1,300 tons of graphite, the cargo was 

 exposed to the moist air encountered on a tropical voyage, all but 

 six of a crew of nineteen were stricken with beriberi. 



The bark " J. C. Warns," from Java and Macassar, with a 

 cargo of green coffee, arrived in New York June 23, 1890. The 

 captain and three men had died of beriberi. The coffee had been 

 picked and shipped too green. Mr. Tobias, consignee of the 

 cargo, showed me a sample of it; it was charred, carbonized, and 

 almost destroyed. The coffee had fermented. The outbreak of 

 beriberi on a ship from Java, where the coffee has been carbon- 

 ized, is a regular occurrence. Java coffee owes its value in our 

 market to its color; in order to obtain this color, the captains 

 take their cargoes quite green, which favors a slight fermentation 

 during the trip. Sometimes they go too far; the coffee is too 

 green, and the fermentation too violent; in such cases there is 

 always carbonization; the grains stick together in great masses, 

 and abundant fumes (carbonic gases) fill the ship. 



The iron ship " Glenmorag,' Captain Currie, 133 days from 

 Colombo, Ceylon, with 1,100 tons of graphite on board, 800 tons 

 of cocoa-nut oil, etc., arrived July 17 in New York. This ship, 

 loaded in Colombo alongside the " Pax " (mentioned above), trav- 

 elled the same course, at an interval of two weeks. She lies now 

 at the Atlantic dock, in Brooklyn, again alongside the "Pax." She 

 had no beriberi outbreak. From her first mate I have the follow- 

 ing information: — 



Crew, 38 men ; captain's wife and two children on board; or 

 all, 31. 



She is a Scotch Glasgow boat, and the crew is English and 

 Scotch, Before taking this cargo, this ship had carried from 

 Barry Dock, near Cardiff, a cargo of coalto Buenos Ayres, South 

 America, and taken a ballast of sand to Colombo, Ceylon. Before 

 these trips she had been in the wheat trade from Tacoma, Wash- 

 ington, to Havre, France. She is remarkably dry, and the cleanest 

 ship one would wish to see. I went down her hold and examined 

 every part of it ; there is not a smut nor a stain anywhere about it. 

 The iron part is especially clean : no trace of incrustation of car- 

 buretted iren, which might have indicated the action of hot moist 



air on the carbon. None of the barrels containing the graphite 

 was broken. The packing was exceedingly good, the dunnage 

 consisted of sticks and cocoa-nut hulls, so that it was impossible 

 for the barrels to roll and break, and thus expose their contents t& 

 the action of the air. 



The diet bill was about the same, or even poorer, than that of 

 the "Pax." Nine casks of salted beef and seven barrels of pork 

 were consumed during the trip. Fresh beef (tinned) three times 

 a week, one-half pound to a man, and a half pound of salt meat 

 on the same days ; other days a full pound of salt meat a day. 

 One-half pound of rice for each man on Saturdays; no vege- 

 tables except onions with the soup three times a week. The 

 ship being Scotch, oatmeal made part of its fare for two and a half 

 months after starting, when it ran out. No sickness whatever 

 during the voyage. One death by accident. The captain attributes 

 the good condition of his cargo and his crew to the change of 

 winds and cooler weather which he enjoyed from the Cape of 

 Good Hope to the North Atlantic. His log is indeed very different 

 from that of the " Pax." 



In Science,, vol. xxii.. No. 545, p. 16, Venable states that "the 

 metallic carbides are usually formed by the action of intense heat 

 upon the metal in the presence of carbon. The form of this car- 

 bon is capable of being greatly varied. Graphite, amorphous 

 carbon, and many hydrocarbons, may be used. The heat of the 

 ordinary furnace is sufficient to form the carbides of the metals, 

 already mentioned, zinc, copper, and notably iron. All of these 

 carbides, under certain conditions, give off their carbon in the 

 form of hydrocarbons. The same smell can be detected in all 

 during their decomposition. In some cases, as iron and zinc, the 

 decomposition is caused by the action of an acid. The carbides 

 of the earths {of which graphite is one, in conjunction with irony 

 decompose in moist air, and more rapidly in water." 



I may point again here to those broken barrels of the "Pax," 

 which exposed the carbon to the influence of tropical air. 



I have examined microscopically the blood of four of the suffer- 

 ers of the "Pax," and obtained the following results: Captain 

 Geeseicke, sick since May 16 with beriberi; 800 diameters, -^^ inch 

 oil-immersion objective; red discs, irregular in outline, congregated 

 in masses, with ragged edges, not inclined to form rouleaux; quite 

 plastic ; colored streaks or rays of pink and red, showing the pres- 

 ence of biliary matter, biliverdin crystals; black spores, not free 

 but entangled in the hummocks of corpuscles. It may be noted 

 that the oedema of this patient's legs only left him two days be- 

 fore this examination. 



Henry Oelrichs (second mate), German, 37 years old. Has 

 been fourteen days sick with beriberi. Examination of the blood ; 

 500 diameters, ^ inch objective ; red corpuscles, very plastic, ag- 

 gregated in hummocks. Many black spores are seen floating 

 about, free in motion. Fibrine in excess, light in texture, and 

 lumpy. Blood very thick, syrupy, and plastic. No motion, show- 

 ing want of circulation. Excess in the coloring matter. This 

 same case examined : 900 diameters, -^-^ inch objective immersion, 

 lens, shows excess of fibrine in ropes, biliary matter in great ex- 

 cess; no crystalline formations; blood quickly oxidizes and forms a 

 solid mass. The black spores above mentioned are quickly held 

 by the fibrine; the red discs are distended, bladder-shaped, and 

 have very ragged edges. The meniscus-shape is lacking, there 

 being great irregularity in outline and color, some are even square- 

 shaped. Some discs have an excess of color, some are very pale. 

 On the edges of the corpuscular mass the color quickly disappears^ 

 in consequence of rapid coagulation. 



Isaac Hegglund, a Swede, 37 years old, has had beriberi since 

 crossing the equator, six weeks ago. Legs are now very thin, 

 but still some soreness remains; knee reflexes still lost. First 

 sound of heart prolonged. Microscopical examination of the 

 blood, 900 diameters, ^^ inch objective, shows rouleaux well 

 formed, no spores, no filaments, slight feverish condition shown 

 by spiculated outlines of some of the red corpuscles, Fibrine is 

 assuming a normal form, showing meshes very regular; no dis- 

 tension of red corpuscles. 



Emil Jensen, a German, 19 years old, sixteen days sick with 

 beriberi. Black spores in active motion and very plentiful; freely 

 scattered in the field of observation; circulation very torpid; fibrine 



