58 FRASER AND STANTON. 



most of the aleurone and oily material present in rice grains. Rice as 

 prepared by primitive methods (Malay rice) was similarly examined, and, 

 as might have been expected from the pounding to which this rice had 

 been subjected, parts of the subpericarpal layers were chipped off to a 

 varying extent, but on the whole these layers were retained to a greater 

 extent than is the case with white rice. 



Early in the course of the experiments the observation was made that 

 parboiled rice subjected to exhaustion with hot alcohol and thereafter 

 carefully dried in the sun to free it from alcohol, produced when fed to 

 fowls a disease indistinguishable from that observed in birds fed on white 

 rice, although such parboiled rice in its original state was incapable of 

 producing this result, however long continued. 



The association of the observations referred to in the two preceding 

 paragraphs seemed to point a way to a solution of the problem. It had 

 been shown that white rice as prepared in the mills of this country pro- 

 duced the same results in fowls as white rice known to have been as- 

 sociated with beriberi. If, now, a substance or substances residing in the 

 outer layers which are polished away in white rice and are retained in 

 parboiled rice could be added to white rice and so prevent its harmful 

 effects it was conceived that the nutritive hypothesis would thereby be 

 supported. 



In accordance with this idea the following experiments were initiated : 



A rice mill in Singapore was visited and there was obtained (A) a quantity of 

 the grain deprived of the husk; (B) a quantity of the polished rice from the same 

 lot of grain, that is, the grain from which the subpericarpal layers had been 

 polished off; (C) a quantity of the polishings, that is, the material removed 

 subsequent to the separation of the husk and which includes the pericarp with 

 the subpericarpal layers. The miller estimates that 40 parts of paddy produce 

 25 parts of white rice, 5 parts of polishings, and 10 parts of husk. The polish- 

 ings are sold as food for cattle and the husks are burned as fuel in the mill. 



Experiment A. — Twelve fowls were fed on the husked grain for five weeks. 



Result: All remained healthy. 



Experiment B. — Twelve fowls were fed on the white rice alone. 



Result: In five weeks six had developed polyneuritis; two were dead, one 

 having suffered from polyneuritis and one from a disease other than polyneuritis ; 

 five fowls remained healthy. 



Experiment G. — Twelve fowls were fed on rice taken daily from the same bag 

 as that used in experiment B; in addition, polishings in the form of emulsion, 

 in amount equal to that milled from the quantity of rice consumed, were fed 

 daily by a tube passed into the crop. This quantity was subsequently diminished 

 week by week until only 3 grams of polishings per kilo of body weight were 

 being given daily. This amount sufficed to maintain the fowls in health and in 

 constant weight. 



Result: The experiment was continued for seven weeks and all remained 

 healthy. 



The result was subsequently confirmed for rice taken from places where known 

 outbreaks of beriberi had occurred. 



