Dec. 8, 1920. 
Dr. J.F. Bock, 
c/o American consul, 
Bangkok, Siam. 
Dear Dr. Bock; 
While the matter is fresh in my mind, I want to call 
your attention to the remarkable work which is being done 
in this country in the study of the influence of diet on 
diabetes. I wonder if you realize that there are estimated 
to be in this country a half million diabetics and that 
the researches now along the line of the use of starch 
free vegetables have saved the lives of hundreds of men 
and women who would otherwise have long ago been dead. 
Dr. W. A. Orton, of this Bureau, has for several 
years been making a fight for his life through the use 
of starch free vegetables. He has maintained his own 
collection and has been experimenting with every kind of 
vegetable that we could give him. He has just called and 
has asked me if in your search through Siam and Burma and 
wherever you go you would not be good enough to get seeds 
of any green vegetable which is used by the people with 
whom you come in contact. What is particularly wanted is 
a green vegetable, first, which will thrive here in the 
summer time; second, very early spring vegetables; and, 
third, vegetables which can stand the process known as 
thrice cooking and still retain their flavor. By thrice 
cooking, I mean a vegetable which can be cooked and the 
water drained off, cooked again and drained again, and 
eooked a third time. This process eliminates the sugars 
and starches almost entirely in many vegetables and leaves the 
green chlorophyll and the fibres or cellulose material. 
While you will not have an opportunity, probably, 
to talk with many doctors in regard to this feature of 
the vegetables, you may find out in the Orient men who 
are keenly interested in this subject of diabetes, and, 
should you find them, you might be interested to give 
them the name of this book by Elliot P. Joslin, - 
A Diabetic Manual, published by Lee Fibeger, Philadelphia, 
1919. 
Trusting that you will be able to find something 
that will assist in giving these poor diabetics a variety 
in their vegetable diet, which is what they particularly 
crave, I remain, with kind regards, 
Yer-y sincerely yours, 
COPY SAG 
A 
‘gTicultural Explorer in charge 
