* 
DISAPPOINTMENTS 
the second week in April the Dutch authorities became 
oreatly alarmed by the spread of the disease. Cases 
were reported daily, and all proved fatal. At last the 
deaths reached the terrible figure of 160 in ten days. 
The victims were all Javanese, the officials and natives 
went unscathed. The doctors of the Dutch Colony 
were very able men, but no relief could be given to the 
patient beyond administering anesthetics. I question 
whether it was rightly styled beri-beri, for in South 
America, at Manaos on the Rio Negro, I have seen 
cases of the disease among the Portuguese rubber 
gatherers, but these bore no resemblance to the sick- 
ness at Merauke. The sufferers in South America 
were generally men who led isolated lives in the vast 
forests of the Amazons, gathering the sap of the hevea 
brazliensis, and living for long periods on bad food. 
Victims of this type of beri-beri generally live for nine 
months, and those of strong constitution and in whom 
the swelling had not risen above the knees recovered. 
If the patient lives the old life and continues the old 
diet in the forest, the disease gradually ascends until 
it gets above the knees, and then its course becomes 
very rapid until it reaches the heart. 
I myself caught beri-beri on the Rio Branco, and 
first noted its presence by the discovery of a numb 
spot about the size of a halfpenny on each ankle. 
The Brazilian medical men assured me that nowhere 
in South America could I hope to get better, and I 
was ordered to quit the country at once. Before I 
reached Havre the numbness was greatly reduced, the 
affected patch being then the size of a farthing, and 
two months after I reached home, it vanished. In 
93 
