290 STRONG AND CROWELL. 



tific standpoint in relation to our present knowledge at the time. 

 In fact, its passage was only secured at a final business meeting 

 after the association had adjourned from Manila to Baguio, the 

 summer capital of the Philippines, and at which meeting only 

 a portion of the members of the association were present. Near 

 the close of the year, 1910, the question of passing a law placing 

 a tax upon all imported polished rice was considered by the 

 Government of these Islands, but, owing to the fact that there 

 was still considerable difference of opinion expressed regarding 

 the definite etiology of the disease in relation to rice alone, the 

 question was temporarily postponed. It was then decided by 

 one of us to carry out as careful a test of this question as was 

 possible. 



In the year 1910 the etiology of beriberi was still to such an 

 extent an open question that the Societe de Pathologie Exotique 

 through its president, M, Roux, director of the Pasteur Insti- 

 tute, appointed a committee ^^ to investigate the subject and to 

 collect information in the countries where beriberi existed. 



The researches which will be here recorded were planned 

 during the year 1910 and commenced at the beginning of the 

 year 1911 ; but, owing to the hurried departure of one of us to 

 Manchuria, it was necessary to discontinue them and to post- 

 pone them until the beginning of the present year. 



CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE EXPERIMENTS WERE PERFORMED. 



The object of our study was to determine definitely, if 

 possible, whether beriberi, as it occurs in the Philippine Islands, 

 is an infectious disease or whether it is one which has its origin 

 in disturbances in metabolism, brought about by the prolonged 

 use of polished rice as a staple article of diet. The experi- 

 ments were carried out in Bilibid Prison in which institution the 

 hygienic conditions may be said to be almost ideal. The area 

 inside the prison walls comprises 3.43 hectares (8.5 acres) ; the 

 average number of inmates is 3,000, but the subjects upon which 

 our experiments were performed were entirely isolated, and no 

 case of beriberi had been known to occur among them since 

 their confinement. Individuals who have been sentenced to im- 



" This committee was composed of MM. Breaudat, le Dantec, Jeanselme, 

 Kermorgant, Marchoux, and Pottevin and its report did not reach us 

 until after our experiments were commenced. The important researches 

 which have been performed by various investigators upon the subject are 

 recorded in this excellent report and the theory of the dietetic origin of 

 the disease endorsed. See Bull. Soc. path, exotique (1911) (Nov. and Dec), 

 4, 575, 656. 



