Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  > 
May,  1914.  J 
The  Vitamines. 
239 
the  development  of  a  "  multiple  neuritis  "  with  partial  paralysis  in 
both  the  motor  and  the  sensory  realms. 
Various  theories  have  been  held  with  regard  to  beri-beri.  It 
has  been  believed  to  be  an  infectious  disease  because  it  so  often 
affects  a  large  number  of  people  who  are  closely  associated,  as  in 
a  prison,  a  ship,  or  a  laborers'  camp.  The  fact  was  formerly  over- 
looked that  such  companies  share  the  same  diet  and  that  their 
trouble  may  well  be  due  to  that  source.  This  is  now  accepted  as 
proved.  But  when  the  decision  is  reached  that  something  must  be 
wrong  with  the  food  there  are  still  two  possible  views  to  be  con- 
sidered. Is  the  diet  positively  poisonous  or  is  it  merely  insufficient? 
This  question  has  been  asked  both  with  reference  to  scurvy  and  to 
beri-beri.  It  is  not  easy  to  answer  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  meet  all  ob- 
jections. Nevertheless,  the  tendency  is  toward  the  conclusion  that 
it  is  the  inadequacy  rather  than  the  toxic  nature  of  the  food  which 
is  to  be  held  responsible  in  these  and  perhaps  in  other  cases. 
It  is  proposed  to  call  such  failures  of  nutrition  "  deficiency 
diseases."  It  is  assumed  that  the  lack  is  of  one  or  more  of  the 
specific  substances  already  termed  vitamines.  The  evidence  in 
support  of  such  a  conception  is  especially  convincing  in  the  case  of 
beri-beri.  As  long  ago  as  1897  it  was  discovered  that  rice  which  has 
been  "  polished  " — that  is,  deprived  of  its  pericarp  or  immediate 
husk — has  a  tendency  to  induce  beri-beri  and  that  the  inclusion  of 
the  pericarp  makes  it  entirely  wholesome.  It  has  been  possible  to 
confirm  this  in  a  striking  manner  by  experiments  on  birds.  If  a 
fowl  or  a  pigeon  is  restricted  to  polished  rice  as  a  diet  it  soon  re- 
fuses to  eat.  If  forced  feeding  is  then  resorted  to  it  soon  becomes 
pitiably  weak  and  cannot  long  survive.  The  partial  feeding  is  thus 
as  surely  destructive  as  absolute  starvation.  Post-mortem  study  of 
such  birds  shows  marked  degeneration  of  the  nerves.  The  service 
of  the  pericarp  may  be  conceived  of  in  either  of  two  ways.  The 
polished  rice  may  contain  an  active  poison  for  which  the  husk  pro- 
vides a  natural  antidote.  The  alternative  is  that  the  pericarp 
furnishes  a  necessary  constituent  of  the  nerve  tissue,  a  vitamine,  for 
want  of  which  the  nerve-fibres  deteriorate.  How  hard  it  is  to  choose 
between  these  two  views  has  already  been  suggested. 
Funk  has  been  successful  in  his  patient  endeavor  to  isolate 
the  vitamine  the  lack  of  which  causes  beri-beri.  He  has  obtained 
from  the  pericarp  of  rice  a  number  of  fractions,  only  one  of  which 
has  the  remedial  property.    This  appears  to  be  a  definite  organic 
