The Cause of Beri-Beri

My attention was first called to this disease in an outbreak of beri-beri at Meiktila Jail in 1808 ; at that time I thought the disease was due to a micrococcus, which I found in between the starch cells in jewary, in the granary of the jail ; I had also found it in pigeon's excreta from the roofs, and thought I had also found it in the blood and in pigeon's blood. But my series of experiments were open to considerable objection as regards method, as I have now learned. It was about the same time that a paragraph appeared in the British Medical Journal of the 24-th September, 1898, concerning the connection between rice and beri-beri. It was not till coming to Rangoon in May 11)00 that I had the opportunity of seeing more cases of beri-beri and of carrying out a series of experiments, which are now about to be described. Working on the idea that beri-beri is a rice disease, of the various ways in which rice is brought into connection with the body, the one which appeared most likely to bring forward light on the subject was the rice liquors which