INFANTILE BERIBERI. 81 



provement would not so quickly manifest itself on simply chang- 

 ing the food of the infant or the mother. It is highly probable 

 also that it is not due to toxins in the milk, for the reason, 

 that the anatomic and histologic findings reveal nothing to sub- 

 stantiate such a basis for the disease. 



In the paper written two years ago McLaughlin and the writer 

 stated that the mother's milk "is probably deleterious by reason 

 of what it laclifi rather than because of any harmful constituent." 

 If this were true, it seemed highly probable that the condition 

 could be reproduced in laboratory animals, for example, young 

 puppies by feeding them with the mother's milk. 



The majority of the infants die when 1 to 2 months old. 

 Hence it would be expected that the puppies would show some 

 symptoms after nursing one to two months. 



For these experiments I secured young puppies 2 to 14 days 

 old. Whei^it had been demonstrated by necropsy that an infant 

 had died of beriberi I called on the mother and persuaded her 

 to nurse two puppies. After explaining to the mothers the 

 object in view, most of them were willing to comply with 

 the request without any recompense whatever. In all, 16 pup- 

 pies were used, but for various reasons (some died, for others 

 the women did not have sufficient milk, and, in one or two cases 

 after nursing them a while the women were unwilling to proceed 

 further with the experiment) only 7 were nursed for a period 

 of one month or longer. These were nursed by cases 1, 3, 8, 

 and 10. (See table of milk analyses.) 



In case 1 the woman lived near the Medical School. The 

 puppies were kept in the laboratory and the woman came here 

 every day, remaining from 7 in the morning to 6 in the after- 

 noon, and nursed the puppies every two hours. The puppies 

 were weighed every day or two. The other cases occurred on 

 the other side of the city and the puppies were taken to the 

 women's homes. They were kept warm and comfortable and 

 were fed every two hours. I visited them every day or every 

 other day, weighed them, and noted the changes taking place 

 in them. 



EXPERIMENT NO. 1. 



The two puppies were .'J days old and the woman began to nurse them 

 August 12, just one week after the death of her child of typical infantile 

 beriberi. The woman had numbness and areas of anjesthesia in her legs. 

 It was with some difficulty that she could walk and any exertion produced 

 palpitation of the heart. She suffered from shortness of breath. Her 

 knee jerks were absent. During the first four days the puppies lost in 

 weight; they then gained continuously until two days before death when 



