Bèri-bèri : its etiology,symptoms, treatment, and pathology, with an appendix, containing a detailed clinical account of 52 cases, and the morbid appearance seen in 19 post-mortem examinations, with characteristic illustrations of the disease, being a thesis submitted for the M.D. degree of the University ofEdinburgh in 1889 / by Arthur J.M. Bentley.

  • Bentley, Arthur J. M.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bèri-bèri : its etiology,symptoms, treatment, and pathology, with an appendix, containing a detailed clinical account of 52 cases, and the morbid appearance seen in 19 post-mortem examinations, with characteristic illustrations of the disease, being a thesis submitted for the M.D. degree of the University ofEdinburgh in 1889 / by Arthur J.M. Bentley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Penang, where the epidemic had shown itself, and the same dietary change was introduced. Dr. Rowell, therefore, considers that although the former diet had nothing perhaps to do with the actual or direct causation of the affection, yet its poverty in respect of its nitrogenous constituents did, undoubtedly, predispose the blood of the prisoners to the reception of the poison, whatever the peculiar nature of that virus may yet be discovered to be. Dr. Anderson, of Japan, writing on the question of whether a non-nitrogenous, or largely rice diet is an exciting cause of Beri-Beri says : That the coolie class, who live more exclusively upon rice than the soldiers, sailors, or traders yet suffer far less from Beri-Beri than these do in the Calcutta epidemic. Dr. Kenneth MacLeod could not attribute the disease to poverty of living, nor to any dietetic condition whatsoever, for well-fed Mahomedan butchers accustomed to generous living were equally seized. Surgeon-Major White of Ceylon gives his Labuan experience with the Ceylon Rifles and says : That diet has nothing whatever to do with its production. Dr. Duane Simmons, of Yokohama, has observed that those who are in a condition able to afford good and abundant food are most liable to Beri-Beri. He remarks, however, that rice even of excellent quality is badly tolerated by the stomach of the Beri-Beri patient, is often rejected, and appears to aggravate the symptoms. Whether this arises from its constipating qualities or the deficiency in this grain of potash, I am not in a position to say, but certain it is, that this influence seems to be counteracted by the addition to the diet of a pulse, such as dholl, which is