50 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



ese, the Japanese and the Filipinos. In the old days when 

 these people lived largely on rice milled by their old crude 

 milling process where they merely took off the husk of the 

 rice, they did not have beri-beri. However, when the im- 

 proved milling process came into use, which not only took 

 off the husk of the rice but also took off the rice germ and 

 the brown coating on the outside of the kernel, they began 

 to have beri-beri and many of them perished. In fact, 

 this disease became a national calamity in those countries. 



Many theories were advanced as to what caused beri- 

 beri. For example, a Japanese scientist called Takiki had 

 the theory that beri-beri was caused by a lack of protein in 

 the diet. Takiki was absolutely wrong, but yet he was 

 able to cure beri-beri. On the return of one of the naval 

 training vessels from a long trip it was found, as usual, that 

 many cases of beri-beri had developed and several of the 

 boys had died. During the voyage the people on board 

 had, of course, lived nearly entirely on polished rice. This 

 had been the standard Japanese diet for many years. 



Takiki probably told the officials, '*I told you so. If you 

 would pay attention to my theory and use the sort of diet 

 I suggest, this would not have happened". Probably on 

 the theory they were willing to try anything once, when 

 the next naval training vessel set sail for an extended voy- 

 age they said, **We will follow Takiki's recommendation." 

 He advised they add fish, eggs, and meat to the diet for 

 these boys on the training vessel. They did so, and there 

 were practically no cases of beri-beri. The only ones who 

 came down with beri-beri were the ones who said, "New- 

 fangled ideas are all wrong; the old ideas are good enough 

 for us." They ate polished rice, and during the voyage 

 came down with beri-beri. 



After this, Takiki was considered a hero — and yet 

 his theory was absolutely wrong. Beri-beri is not due to a 

 lack of protein. It was not found out until many years later 

 that beri-beri is caused by the lack of the spicific vitamin B. 



If pigeons or chickens are fed polished rice alone, 

 after a while they will show the symptoms of a serious ner- 

 vous disease. They will look as though they had been 



