142 DISCUSSION. 



3. By feeding experiments on fowls. 



Of course, if the dietary of those peoples among whom beriberi is 

 occurring be improved, the use of highly polished rice might be continued 

 and no untoward effect occur, but so long as these peoples continue to 

 partake of a diet in which rice constitutes the staple, our efforts must 

 be directed to maintaining the rice at a standard sufficient for their 

 physiological requirements. 



I wish to correct here one misapprehension. It is not the removal of 

 the pericarp which makes the rice harmful, but of the layers subjacent to 

 the pericarp (subpericarpal la) r ers) ; the cells composing those layers differ 

 in respect of their constituents from the cells composing the central part 

 of the endosperm. 



Dr. II. Campbell Ilighet. principal medical officer local government, 

 Bangkok, delegate, from Ills Imperial Majesty's Government, Siam. — 

 In discussing epidemics of beriberi in mines, the theory that arsenical 

 poisoning may be the cause of the particular polyneuritis observed must 

 not be forgotten. I can give no information with respect to how long 

 white Siam rice had been imported into Singapore. As regards the one 

 case of beriberi which arose amongst seven members of Doctor Brooke's 

 quarantine staff, it should always be borne in mind that one swallow does 

 not make a summer, and that this one case proved nothing. However, 

 allowing that this case was really beriberi and that the symptoms 

 appeared to develop after nearly three months' residence on the quaran- 

 tine island, this was not remarkable. If we were to speak of such a 

 thing as an incubation period, I could not fix any definite time for such a 

 period. It may vary from a few days to months or even to a year or 

 more. Why may Doctor Brookes's case not have been a relapse? Men 

 with extended experience in beriberi know that before starting upon 

 feeding experiments the investigator must be careful in the examination 

 of the persons about to undergo treatment in order to eliminate old 

 or incipient cases of the disease. My own experience is that beriberi 

 once contracted is most difficult to eradicate entirely, and that months or 

 even years afterwards some sudden strain upon the health might bring 

 about a condition in every way like acute beriberi. A case of a Siamese 

 police sergeant may be cited, who, after a prolonged residence in hospital, 

 suffering from beriberi, returned to duty and did good work for eighteen 

 months. Having had a dispute with one of his subordinates, he was 

 put into a police cell to await trial. In thirty-six hours he became so ill 

 that he was transferred to hospital, where he died in a few hours, with all 

 the symptoms of acute, wet beriberi. On post-mortem examination, it 

 was quite evident that the lesions of the heart were the result of prolonged 

 illness. He had the largest "bullock's heart" I ever saw. His previous 

 history was not known, but the conclusion might easily have been reached 



