SOME OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING BERIBERI. 1 



By Gorosaku Shibayasia. 2 



(From the Institute for Infectious Diseases, Tolcio.) 



Marked attention has been given in Japan to the question of the 

 etiology of beriberi since the Eusso-Japanese war, not only in medical 

 circles, but also in a practical manner. During the war, Japan had 

 200,000 cases of beriberi in the army, and this was the only ravaging 

 epidemic with which the army had to contend. A beriberi commission, 

 consisting of bacteriologists, pathologists, chemists and clinicians was 

 therefore formed two years ago by the ministry of war, and I was one 

 of the commission, who, together with two colleagues, made a journey to 

 the Netherlands East Indies in order to observe the occurrence of beri- 

 beri in that region. 



Beriberi is now very widely distributed in Java and Sumatra, much 

 more so than in former years. The disease is present among a number 

 of Chinese on the Island of Banka, where the tin mines are situated. 

 "We made a number of observations in this locality, which I wish briefly 

 to mention in this place. 



The present views concerning the etiology of beriberi are very diverse, 

 and this is not the place to enter more extensively into a discussion of the 

 literature, but the theory of the relation of the disease to the consump- 

 tion of rice must here be considered. Ten years ago Eykman conducted 

 some experiments with fowls, producing polyneuritis by the exclusive 

 feeding of husked (polished) rice, whereas the unhusked (red) variety 

 did not produce this result. Vordermann then demonstrated, in con- 

 formity with this work, that beriberi is a much rarer disease in 

 prisons in Java where unhusked rice is used than in institutions in 

 •uhich the polished grain is employed. However, I wish to caution 

 against regarding polyneuritis of fowls as being identical with human 

 beriberi, and the observations of Vordermann leave many lapses and have 

 much to be brought against them. Beriberi, as a fact, is endemic 

 among oriental peoples who also use rice as the chief article of diet, 



1 Read at the first biennial meeting of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical 

 Medicine, at Manila, March 11, 1910. Translated from the German by P. C. F. 



2 Delegate from His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Government. 



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