400 CHAMBERLAIN AND VEDDER. 



Group A: Poxir fowls fed on polished, rice plus 10 cubic centimeters 

 daily of the filtrate through bone black. — Two fowls developed neuritis 

 in twenty-two days; one fowl developed neuritis in twenty-four days; 

 one fowl developed neuritis in twenty-six days. 



Group B: Four fowls fed on polished rice plus 10 cubic centimeters 

 of the washings of bone black daily. — One fowl developed neuritis in forty- 

 one days ; one fowl developed neuritis in forty-nine days ; two fowls were 

 alive and well on the fifty-sixth day when the experiment was discontinued. 



In this experiment all 4 fowls that received the filtrate containing 

 sucrose developed neuritis. This experiment and experiment 5 show 

 conclusively that sucrose is incapable of preventing polyneuritis gal- 

 linarum. 



We also have demonstrated in the last experiment that the neuritis- 

 preventing principle is retained in a filter of bone black, and, therefore, 

 bone black must have a strong power of adsorption for this substance. 

 Washing the charcoal with water appears to remove some of the neuritis- 

 preventing substance as shown by the fact that 2 out of 4 fowls were 

 completely protected for at least fifty-six days, while in the case of the 

 2 birds which developed neuritis the disease manifested itself only after 

 an unusually prolonged incubation period. It is probable that the 

 neuritis-preventing principle can be extracted completely from this bone 

 black by using other solvents and that this will aiford another new 

 method for the separation and identification of this important substance. 



In addition to the experiments with extract of rice polishings just 

 described, we have tested the neuritis-preventing properities of several 

 other articles. 



Experiment 7. — It has been suggested several times that beriberi and 

 scurvy are closely allied diseases. This seems quite improbable owing 

 to the vast difference in the pathology and symptomatology of the two 

 conditions. Lime juice is well known to be both a preventive and a cure 

 for scurvy, and if there is anything in the supposition that the two 

 diseases are allied we might reasonably expect that the administration 

 of lime juice would prevent the development of polyneua-itis gallinarum. 

 To test this hypothesis 4 fowls were fed on polished rice and were given 

 a daily dose of 0.8 of a cubic centimeter of lime juice diluted with water 

 to 10 cubic centimeters. This quantity for a fowl is equivalent to about 

 40 cubic centimeters for a man, which is ample to prevent the develop- 

 ment of scurvy. The result of this experiment is as follows : 



Group A: Four fowls fed on polished rice plus 0.8 cubic centimeter 

 of lime juice daily. — One fowl died of inanition on the twenty-fourth 

 day; one fowl developed neuritis on the twenty-fifth day; one fowl de- 

 veloped neuritis on the thirty-sixth day; one fowl was alive without 

 neuritis, although rather weak on the thirty-ninth day when the experi- 

 ment was discontinued. 



