Braddon, William Leonard (1861-1935)

Two autograph letters from Braddon, Mount Beryl, Seremban, Federated Malay States, on headed note-paper, dated 6 Oct 1910 and 23 Feb 1911 (4 and 2 pp., 4to, written on rectos only), to Sir Charles James Martin, including one diagram, and annotated by Martin: in the first seeking Martin’s “powerful aid in clearing up perhaps the final point in the etiology of beri beri”, and in the second continuing discussion of beri-beri and sending the enclosed pamphlet:

W Leonard Braddon (author of "The Cause and Prevention of Beri-beri") HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR of the Straits Settlements and SCIENTIFIC POACHERS: The Discovery of the Cause of Beri-Beri A Disease which has cost $9,000,000 and 100,000 lives! ITS SUCCESSFUL PREVENTION. It still costs a quarter of a million annually, but may be prevented for nothing! A Great Sanitary Reform needed and a little Justice (Riberio & Co Ltd, Singapore [1911])
Also
W L Braddon and E A Cooper, "The influence of the total fuel-value of a dietary upon the quantity of vitamine required to prevent beri-beri (preliminary communication)", British Medical Journal, 20 Jun 1914
Dr B C P Jansen and Dr W F Donath, 'Isolation of Anti-beriberi-vitamin", Mededeelingen van den Dienst der Volksgezondheid in Ned-Indie 1927 Part I [annotated, probably by Martin, or possibly Harriette Chick]

Braddon qualified in medicine at Guy's Hospital in 1884; after some years working in partnership with his father in Upton-on-Severn, he made several voyages as a ship's medical officer, and eventually settled in Malaya as a district surgeon. He took an interest in tropical diseases and made important early observations on the aetiology of beriberi, associating it with the inclusion of polished rice in the diet, publishing The cause and prevention of beri-beri (London: Rebman) in 1907, an achievement recognised by the award of the Stewart Research Prize of the British Medical Association in 1912. However, he was edged out of this medical position in the Colonial Service in 1908, and became a successful rubber planter, although retaining his interest in beriberi. He joined the RAMC during the First World War, but afterwards continued as a rubber planter in the Federated Malay States until his death.

As a friend and colleague of Sir Charles Martin, he persuaded to him take the work on beriberi further through experimental investigation at the Lister Institute, leading to the discovery by Casimir Funk of the causation of the disease in the dietary deficiency of elements found in unpolished rice but removed in processing.

There is an obituary in The Lancet, 28 Nov 1936, p 1304, and an entry in Plarr's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1930-1951, and a biographical article E Wylie, "The search for the cause of beriberi in the Malay peninsula: the contribution of Dr. W. L. Braddon", Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol 61, 1988, pp 93-122. Braddon's place in the overall development of understanding of the aetiology of beriberi is analysed in David W. Fraser, "Vitamins and Vitriol: W. L. Braddon's Epidemiology of Beriberi", American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 148 Number 6 September 15, 1998, pp 519-527