THE PHILIPPINE 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 
B. TROPICAL MEDICINE 
VoL. X MARCH, 1915 No. 2 
EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT OF HUMAN BERIBERI. WITH 
CONSTITUENTS OF RICE POLISHINGS 1 
By R. R. WILLIAMS and N. M. SALEEBY 
(From the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Bureau of Science, 
Manila, P. I.) 
TWO PLATES 
The work which we wish to present was undertaken primarily 
in the hope that it might lead to some practical suggestions 
for the treatment of beriberi. In addition, it was felt that the 
experimental study of the etiology of the disease has been too 
much limited to polyneuritis gallinarum and that further work 
on human beriberi would produce more convincing evidence 
of the nature and causes of the disease. Considerable use has 
been made of extract of rice polishings in cases of beriberi. 
It has proved distinctly beneficial in infantile beriberi,? but in 
adults, with few exceptions, the treatment has failed to be of 
service. Nevertheless the experimental results produced in 
fowls with certain preparations of rice polishings have been 
such as to demand a further effort to produce a more widely 
useful remedy. 
Many of the cases that we have treated and observed have 
been chronic or recurrent, the type of beriberi most obstinate 
to treat. The number of acute cases in Manila this year 
(1914), other than among infants, has not been large. As the 
Liga Nacional para la Proteccion de la Primera Infancia has 
been carrying on extensive work with infants, we have been 
forced to accept some cases perhaps not very desirable from 
* Chemical preparations by R. R. Williams; case records by N. M. Saleeby. 
Presented at the annual meeting of the Philippine Islands Medical Associa- 
tion, November 6, 1914. 
* Bull. Manila Med. Soc. (1912), 4, 26; Albert, This Journal, Sec. B 
(1915), 10, No. 1. 
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