140 . DISCUSSION. 



which was taken at night. The entire command was examined every 

 second Sunday and all suspicions cases were taken into the hospital so 

 that the statistics are complete. The quality of the rice was not changed 

 during this* period. 



Doctor de llaau. — I wish to reply to Doctor Castellani's objection to 

 the view that the etiology of beriberi is due to the rice consumed, by the 

 statement which I mentioned in my paper, namely, that neither in the 

 blood nor the organs of men suffering from Polyneuritis epidemica nor in 

 the organs of thos'e who have died of this disease nor in the blood or organs 

 of fowls suffering from experimental polyneuritis have antibodies or 

 antigen been found. It is therefore: improbable that an infection by 

 microbes is the cause of beriberi, since we know that in all such infections 

 antigen or antibodies are produced as a result of reaction by the infected 

 organisms. 



Dr. Gorosaku Shibtiyama, Institute for Infectious Discuses, Tokyo, 

 delegate from His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Government. — It has been 

 known for ten years that fowls, exclusively feci on polished rice, may 

 contract polyneuritis, whereas the birds given the unpolished grain remain 

 free from the disease. On the other hand, unpolished rice can produce 

 polyneuritis when it has been heated to 1?0°. There is no chemical 

 difference, especially in regard to the content of phosphorus, between 

 heated and nonheated rice. 



Furthermore, the occurrence of epidemics of beriberi in fishing villages 

 has taught us that the inhabitants of the latter eat large quantities of 

 fresh fish, and this diet contains, relatively, a large amount of phosphorus. 

 "We have treated many cases of beriberi with phytin, but we could not 

 observe any very favorable results. 



I would also, in this place, wish especially to emphasize the fact that the 

 polyneuritis of fowls is not identical with beriberi, and that the experi- 

 mental results obtained with these birds can not directly be interpreted 

 in the same sense with human beings. So, for example, polyneuritis 

 accompanies general cachexia and inanition in fowls, whereas beriberi, 

 especially the acute, pernicious form, generally attacks well-nourished, 

 muscular men. 



Dr. Henry Fraser, director of the Institute for Medical Research, 

 Kuala Lumpur, Federated Malay Slates, delegate from the Government 

 of the Federated Malay States. — With reference to the observations of 

 Major Kilbourne on the nutritive value of the diets issued to the people 

 under his care, I do not think that we can estimate these from the com- 

 position of the various foodstuffs recorded in text-books because, in our 

 experience, these records show considerable differences from the results 

 of analyses carried out by us. 



There are numerous species and varieties of rice; these differ in com- 

 position. Beef in the Trojiics is poorer in fat and pork is richer in 



