DISAPPOINTMENTS 
Columbia I have observed exactly the same form of 
the disease as on the Amazons. 
In Merauke, however, sufferers from the so-called 
beri-beri had no seizure of paralysis in the lower 
extremities. It was always in the abdomen, and was 
accompanied by the most excruciating agony. Death 
usually came in four hours. There was no relief 
from pain; the intestines seemed to be knotted, the 
patient’s face was pale and agonised. He continually 
moaned, strained forward and doubled his body. He 
held his stomach with both hands, and occasionally 
lay down and rolled, and as the end approached, the 
intestines seemed to be forced upwards towards the 
thorax, and there was great swelling. ‘The doctors 
tried poultices and fomentations in vain. ‘They also 
administered castor oil without affording any allevia- 
tion of the suffering. Perfect consciousness remained 
until the very end, and the last thing the patient 
always asked for was fruit. Five minutes after 
making this request, he was dead. 
One evening we spent with Mr. Schadee on his 
verandah, there was with us his Javanese clerk (not 
a convict), who was enjoying his cigarette and ap- 
parently in the best of health. ‘The next morning 
he was dead. Our carpenter on board the Van 
Doorn was carried off with equal suddenness, and 
he, curiously enough, had never been on shore all 
the time of the epidemic. The victims were always 
buried within five hours. As to the communication 
of infection, it is doubtful whether the disease was 
due in each case to external causes, or whether once 
having broken out it spread from man to man. The 
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