VIII, B, 3 Vedder and Williams: Vitamines in Rice 191 



extract of rice polishings, prepared according to our usual 

 method, is capable of dissipating the dropsy in cases of wet 

 beriberi, and of promptly relieving the attacks of cardiac in- 

 sufficiency, but that this extract is incapable of curing the paral- 

 ysis in cases of so-called dry beriberi. On the other hand, Funk's 

 base isolated from this extract after hydrolysis is capable of 

 promptly relieving the paralysis in dry beriberi. This closely 

 parallels the results obtained in treating fowls suffering with 

 polyneuritis. (Edema is not present in these fowls, and the 

 disease is apparently similar to human dry beriberi. The un- 

 treated extract when given to these fowls fails to cure promptly 

 the paralysis, but Funk's base obtained from this same extract 

 will promptly cure the paralysis. 



The exact relationship existing between dry beriberi and wet 

 beriberi has never been satisfactorily explained. For many 

 years clinicians considered them to be distinct diseases, but since 

 it has been found that cases of dry beriberi sometimes develop 

 oedema or become "wet," while cases of wet beriberi sometimes 

 lose this oedema, and thereby become "dry," it has been generally 

 accepted by clinicians of the present day that the two conditions 

 are manifestations of the same disease, beriberi. However, this 

 belief has never been definitely proved, and we are still in the 

 dark as to why some cases of beriberi should be "dry" and some 

 "wet." In a previous paper (15) the hypothesis was suggested 

 that rice polishings and other foods contain two substances or 

 vitamines that are essential for proper metabolism, one of these 

 being a neuritis-preventing vitamine, and the other a substance 

 which affects metabolism^ in such a way that its absence results 

 in oedema and cardiac failure. It is believed that the results 

 just detailed in the treatment of cases of beriberi afford some 

 support for this hypothesis. Thus it is clear that, since cases of 

 wet beriberi and cardiac beriberi may be promptly relieved by 

 the administration of the untreated extract, while cases of dry 

 beriberi receive little or no benefit from its use, the extract 

 must act differently in these different classes of cases. It seems 

 probable that this different effect may be due to the fact that 

 there are two different chemical substances or vitamines in the 

 extract, one of which acts directly in cases of wet beriberi, while 

 the other occurs as a constituent of some substance (nucleic 

 acid) in such chemical form that it is only available for im- 

 mediate curative effects when it has been broken up. 



Realizing that these results, while suggestive, are not complete 

 proof of this hypothesis, experiments were planned to afford 



