PHOSPHORUS STARVATION: II. Ill 



Some points worth mentioning still remain. The excretion of P 2 5 

 as well as of nitrogen in period E, after phytin had been given, is 

 considerably smaller than it was previously in periods A and B. The 

 phytin (periods C and D) also increases the amount of total solids in 

 the fasces, having a slight laxative action, without at the same time 

 increasing the loss of nitrogen. The quantity of urine rises in the 

 normal man, not only when phytin but also when darac is given; but 

 there seems to have been no effect with the beriberi patient. 



We do not believe the question of the effect of a constant phosphorus 

 and nitrogen starvation to be fully solved by a study of the problem 

 of beriberi. If our supposition is correct and if beriberi is caused by 

 a lack of phosphorus and nitrogen in the diet, then there should be a 

 great number of people whose diet is lacking in phosphorus and nitrogen. 

 However, this starvation may not be of sufficient extent as to cause them 

 to be actually ill. These individuals may be somewhat weak, less able 

 to work and easily tired. The scale of transition between strong, healthy 

 men, to those showing the typical paralysis of beriberi is probably 

 extensive. We are fully convinced that the character of the food is not 

 the least important cause of the inability to work which we notice in the 

 lower classes of natives. The great problem of the influence of nourish- 

 ment upon general health and muscular power is involved in this 

 consideration. 



CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY. 



1. It is highly probable that living for an extended period on a one- 

 sided almost exclusively vegetable diet, which is characterized by its 

 poverty in phosphorus and protein, may result in beriberi. 



2. The process of polishing rice removes a fine skin and the outer 

 layers (bran) ; this rice bran is rich in phosphorus, especially in its 

 organic, soluble form (phytin) ; the content of phosphorus of the rice 

 is considerably reduced by the removal of the bran. 



3. Polished rice, poor in phosphorus, may cause beriberi in man if it 

 is' the main constituent of the food ; but it is harmless if sufficient other 

 nourishment, rich in phosphorus and protein, is taken. The same 

 polished rice causes a polyneuritis in chickens. "White bread, a food of 

 similar chemical composition as regards phosphorus and protein, can not 

 sustain monkeys in normal health if it forms the entire diet. 



4. The addition of phytin (the organic phosphorus compound from 

 rice bran) considerably reduces the deleterious effect of white rice on 

 chickens. 



5 Metabolism experiments show that a diet such as is described in this 

 paper, which contains about 40 calories per kilo, and which supplies lass 

 than 0.2 gram- of nitrogen and 0.032 gram of P 2 3 per kilo of body 

 weight, can not meet the need of a normal man for phosphorus and 

 protein. If phosphorus in the form of phytin or rice bran is added, a part 



