﻿NERVE DEGENERATION IN FOWLS FED ON UNHUSKED RICE 



(PALAY) 



By R. B. Gibson and Isabelo Concepcion 



{From the Laboratory of Physiology, College of Medicine and Surgery, 

 University of the Philippines) 



One plate 



The observations of Fletcher ^ and of Fraser and Stanton * 

 have shown that diets consisting chiefly of polished rice are the 

 common cause of beriberi in the Orient. If the white rice, 

 however, be replaced by the unmilled variety, the disease does 

 not develop. Substitution of rough rice for the polished article 

 and additions to the dietaries of the public institutions of the 

 Philippine Islands and of the Philippine Scouts are stated to 

 have eliminated beriberi from these organizations.^ 



It is generally believed, then, that among rice-eating Orientals, 

 beriberi is due to the use of rice which has been deprived of 

 its cortex. 



Further confirmation of this idea is obtained by the discovery 

 that rice polishings or extracts of these, when fed with the 

 milled grain, will protect against polyneuritis in fowls.* The 

 isolation of certain "vitamines" from rice polishings and yeast 

 are reported in the studies by Funk,° by Suzuki, Shimamura, and 

 Odaki,'' by Edie, Evans, Moore, Simpson, and Webster,' and by 

 Vedder and Williams.- These substances, extracted in relatively 

 minute amounts from large quantities of material, have a prompt 

 curative effect in fowls with polyneuritis. This evidence in- 

 dicates that beriberi is due to the lack of the polished rice in 

 accessory substances which play a role of extreme importance in 

 normal nutrition. 



^Lancet (1907), 1, 1776. 



'Lancet (1909), 1, 451; Studies from Institute for Medical Research. 

 Federated Malay States (1909), No. 10. 



'Heiser, This Journal, Sec. B (1911), 6, 229; Chamberlain, ibid. (1911), 



6, 133. 



* Schaumann, Beih. z. Arch. f. Schiffs- und Trop.-Hyg. (1910), 14, 325; 

 Fraser and Stanton, Studies from Institute for Medical Research. Feder- 

 ated Malay States (1911), No. 12; Chamberlain and Vedder, This Journal, 

 Sec. B (1911), 6, 251; Chamberlain, Vedder, and Williams, ibid. (1912), 



7, 39. 



' Journ. Physiol. (1913), 46, 173, and earlier papers. 



' Biochem. Zeitschr. (1912), 43, 89. 



' Biochem. Journ. (1912), 6, 234. 



' This Journal, Sec. B (1913), 8, 175. 



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