ERADICATION OF BERIBERI. 139 



keep well and neither they nor the mongos could alwa3'S be obtained in 

 sufficient quantities in the Island markets. Therefore, some had to be 

 imported. The ginger root was not acceptable to the Scout as a partial 

 substitute for coffee. Neither mongos nor camotes met with favor as 

 constant articles of diet. 



BETUEN TO THE OLD FILIPINO EATIOX. 



The dietary problem was still further changed on November 7, 1910, 

 when General Orders, No. 24, prescribing the new Filipino ration, was 

 revoked by a cablegram from Washington. The question of diet there- 

 fore reverts to its former status, viz, the old Filipino ration (Table I) 

 with 20 ounces of polished rice as a component. There is, however, so 

 much Filipino number 2 rice on hand in the subsistence depots that its 

 issue and use will continue for several months. Meantime the Board 

 is making eff orts_ to have the ration modified to the extent of forbidding 

 the use of more than 16 ounces of rice daily per man and prescribing a 

 first grade undermilled rice with white pericarp, in place of the highly 

 milled grain which the ration now calls for. 



LESSON LEABNED FEOM USE OF FILIPINO NUilBER 2 HICE. 



A very desirable lesson has been learned from the issue of the Filipino 

 number 2 rice. The Board now recognizes that the term Filipino number 

 2 rice was an unfortunate one for two reasons. First, some samples of 

 commercial Filipino number 2 rice are highly milled or polished ; second, 

 this rice is second grade not only in respect to its milling (i. e., pericarp 

 removal) but also as to its husking and screening and probably at times 

 is produced from an inferior quality of palay (padi). The original 

 selection by the Board of Filipino number 2 rice as the beriberi preventing 

 type was due to the fact that when our recommendation was made no 

 other kind of undermilled rice could be foimd in the Manila mai'ket and 

 there was much less knowledge of and interest in the subject, on the part 

 of the rice dealers, than is now the case. 



What the Board now recommends for the Scouts is a rice of the highest 

 grade and in all respects like the "choice rice" of the subsistence depart- 

 ment except that it is "undermilled" (i. e., has much of its pericarp left 

 on). In this connection the use of the word "milling" refers only to 

 the process of decortication carried on (in most mills) between a stone 

 cone and the metal-gauze case within which the stone revolves, and does 

 not have reference to the other processes carried out in the building, such 

 as husking, winnowing, screening and polishing between sheep skin 

 buffers. We also recommend that, for appearance sake only, this rice 

 be prepared from palay having a white pericarp. 



