Student's textbook of hygiene / [William James Wilson].

  • Wilson, William James.
Date:
[1915]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Student's textbook of hygiene / [William James Wilson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ally breaks out on sailing-ships, where the diet has been deficient in amount or quality. Some idea of the extent of this scourge in the tropics may be imagined when it is stated that in the Federated Malay States (population, 1,036,999 in 1911) 45,000 deaths from Beri-Beri occurred in the course of thirty years. Takaki, in 1884, believing the disease to be the result of nitro- gen-starvation, was able to eradicate it from the Japanese Navy (in which one-quarter of the personnel was constantly down with the disease) by giving a diet richer in protein. ‘he view that in the East the prevalence of the disease is due to the consumption of ‘ milled rice ’’—1.e., rice which has been polished by the removal of its outer layer, or pericarp—has been confirmed. By abolishing the use of milled rice in the Philippines, the Americans have succeeded in stamping out the disease in those islands. Fowls develop Polyneuritis when fed on polished rice, and this can be cured by the administration of the ‘“ polishings,”’ or rice-bran. Funk hag been able to isolate the active prin- ciple, and to it he has given the name “ vitamine.”” About 10 grains of this crystalline substance are contained in 1 ton of rice. The administration of minute quantities of this sub- stance is able to cure and prevent Beri-Beri in fowls. Vita- mine has also been found in yeast, fresh limes, and it or allied substances are necessary to prevent Scurvy, Rickets, and possibly Pellagra. The discovery of vitamines has shown how metabolism may be affected by the absence of certain essential comparatively simple compounds. When the diet is abundant and varied, Beri-Beri is unlikely to develop, but in the diet of underfed coolies and sailors vitamine may be absent, and the disease result. The preventive measures are the substitution of unpolished rice for the polished grain, and the addition of barley and rice- bran to the diet. Pellagra.—The chief symptoms of this disease are an erythe- matous dermatitis of the skin of exposed parts of the body, digestive disturbances, cachexia, and degenerative changes in the nervous system, ending eventually in delusional insanity. The disease has recently been recognized in these islands, and pre- vails widely in Southern Europe and parts of America. Until