406 STRONG AND CROWELL. 



the symptoms. We find no record in the hterature as to 

 whether during the incubation period of beriberi there is fre- 

 quently or usually a loss in weight. All of our cases which 

 developed beriberi showed a preliminary loss of weight, varying 

 from 2.7 to 7.4 kilograms (6 to 16.5 pounds), with the exception 

 of one case. In this one, death occurred from cardiac paralysis 

 on the seventy-eighth day and there was no loss in weight up to 

 the sixty-first day but rather marked oedema of the face and 

 legs. 



In none of the cases was the complete picture of beriberi ob- 

 tained, except in those in which white polished rice formed the 

 staple article of diet, but in one case fed upon red rice the 

 diagnosis of beriberi was almost definite. Indeed, we believe 

 that, had this case been encountered otherwise than in the course 

 of this experiment, the diagnosis of beriberi would have been 

 fully justified. 



The occurrence of marked symptoms of beriberi in case No. 1 

 and early symptoms of the disease in No. 3, both fed upon 

 white rice together with the alcoholic extract of rice polishings, 

 requires some comment. The members of this group were 

 given daily 40 cubic centimeters of the (unheated) alcoholic 

 extract mixed with the rice after it was cooked; that is, they 

 were given the amount of extract obtained from 320 grams of 

 rice polishings or from the polishings obtained from approxi- 

 mately 3.2 kilograms of red rice. Even this amount, however, 

 did not prevent some of the symptoms of beriberi from develop- 

 ing in two of the cases of this group. The result of the experi- 

 ment, with this group, therefore, suggests that, whatever may 

 be the results obtained with this extract in preventing poly- 

 neuritis in fowls and in curing this condition after it has de- 

 veloped, for the prevention of beriberi in adult man or the 

 usual treatment of the disease,'^^ some other substances, such, 

 for example, as the mongo bean, Phaseolus radiatus Linn, (kat- 

 jang id jo), or yeast are evidently far superior and much easier 

 and cheaper to obtain. 



However, Chamberlain and Vedder '" have shown that it is 

 possible to cure infants suffering with beriberi by means of this 

 extract, and where the age of the child is such as to preclude 

 the addition of the necessary nutritious articles to the diet or 



" However, for the treatment of certain fulminating cases of beriberi 

 the use of the protective substance in a more concentrated form, if it can 

 be obtained, would appear desirable. 



''Bull. Manila Med. Soc. (1912), 4, 26. 



