190 The Philippine Journal of Science wis 



physician stated that he had been momentarily expecting his 

 death during the preceding night. His pulse was 150, respira- 

 tion 45, and his heart was palpitating violently. He presented 

 the typical history and appearance of a case of chronic beriberi 

 suffering from an acute cardiac exacerbation. The muscles of 

 the entire body and limbs were wasted and extremely painful 

 to touch, and in addition he had been unable to take any nourish- 

 ment for several days because of persistent vomiting. The 

 patient was at once (11 o'clock, the morning of September 9) 

 given the unhydrolyzed extract obtained from 1 kilogram of rice 

 polishings. This was retained, and his symptoms at once began 

 to improve, and by the evening of the same day his pulse had 

 dropped to 80, his respiration to 30, and the vomiting had ceased. 

 On the following morning another acute exacerbation occurred, 

 and he was again given the extract from 1 kilogram of polishings. 

 Again the symptoms improved, and thereafter he was given 

 the extract from 1 kilogram of polishings daily for about two 

 weeks. The cardiac attacks never returned, the hypersesthesia 

 of the muscles was greatly relieved, the vomiting ceased, and 

 his appetite returned; but he still suffered from paralysis and 

 was unable to walk. 



About one month was now allowed to elapse, during which 

 time the condition of this man remained practically the same. 

 He had had no recurrence of cardiac attacks, but he was still 

 unable to walk. He was then given Funk's base, which we had 

 extracted by Funk's method, from 10 kilograms of polishings. 

 The crystalline base was dissolved in a small quantity of water 

 for purposes of administration. The next day this man showed 

 marked improvement, and for the first time since he had been 

 in the hospital he made attempts to hobble around. This dose 

 was repeated on the next day, and was followed by still further 

 improvement, so that in a few days the man was able to walk 

 about by holding on to the bed, chairs, etc. He was not com- 

 pletely cured, in the sense of being able to walk easily without 

 assistance, but this we attribute to the fact that his muscles 

 were so completely atrophied that they did not have sufficient 

 power to support him. A similar result is seen after any disease 

 which necessitates a long period in bed. We believe that the 

 paralysis in this case was greatly relieved, if not cured, by the 

 administration of Funk's base. 



We were unable to treat other cases with this base owing to 

 the minute quantities at our disposal. 



It will be seen from these cases that the administration of 



