1676 



BERI-BERI AND EPIDEMIC DROPSY 



animal body, and if this fails, the nervous tissues begin to break 

 down, and as a result the signs and symptoms of beri-beri appear. 



Fraser and Stanton believe that the phosphorus content of the 

 rice is a good index as to whether it is harmless or harmful. A safe 

 rice yields more than 0*4 per cent, of phosphorus pentoxide, while 

 a dangerous rice yields less than this figure. Chamberlain and 

 Vedder have suggested that potassium should be used instead of 

 phosphorus for standardization purposes. 



With regard to these findings there is an almost unanimous 

 support from all sides, but the Philippine investigators, while 

 believing that their studies support the polished rice theory, bring 

 forward the curious fact that beri-beri began to diminish among 

 their Native Scouts during the last half year of 1910 without any 

 decrease in the general incidence of the disease in the islands, and 

 four months before the use of under-milled rice ivas introduced into the 

 dietary. They consider that the reduction was either due to 

 unknown causes acting coincidentally with a reduction in the 

 amount of rice in the dietary, together with the addition of a 

 legume, or was due directly to these dietetic changes. . , 



Eijkman, Braddon, Fraser, Stanton, Vedder, and Chamberlain 

 have done sufficient work to make imperative the use of brown rice 

 cooked in ordinary vessels, and the exclusion of the white rice as 

 a staple article of food. 



Edie, Evans, Moore, Simpson, and Webster have separated an 

 antineuritic base called ' torulin N(CH3)3C4H702(HN03)— from 

 yeast, and Thomson and Simpson have noted rapid recovery of 

 patients placed on a full diet, and given i ounce of yeast and 

 200 grammes of katjangido-beans daily. 



Heiser reports that after being present for five years in the 

 Culion Leper Colony in the Philippines, beri-beri disappeared in 

 nine months on a dietary of unpolished rice. 



In 1917 Chick and Hume showed that in order to keep a man in 

 health there must be (a) a suitably proportioned supply of protein, 

 fat, carbohydrate, salts, and water; [b) an adequate amount of vita- 

 mines; and that these two factors could not replace one another. 

 The vitamines of importance in beri-beri they call ' antineuritic or 

 anti-beri-beri,' as the first term covers the polyneuritis in fowls. 

 Neither vitamine has yet been isolated in a pure condition. Pigeons 

 deprived of anti-beri-beri vitamine develop acute polyneuritis in 

 fifteen to twenty-five days. The principal source of this vitamine 

 is the seeds of cereals and pulses. In the former it is mainly de- 

 posited in the germ or embryo of the grain and to a less extent in the 

 grain. It is also found in eggs and yeast. It can withstand drying 

 and also temperatures of 100° C, but is destroyed at 120° C. The 

 deduction is that, in order to prevent beri-beri, bread and biscuit 

 should be made from the germ-containing or wholemeal flour. 

 Antineuritic vitamines cannot be expected to survive in tinned 

 or sterilized foods; hence the necessity in armies to supply vitamine 

 from other sources. 



