. Adventures with animals and plants. Biology. PROBLEM I. How to Choose Foods Wisely. Fig. 196 This chicken has polyneuritis, a disease like beriberi in man. How can it be cjired? (ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION) their navy in the nineteenth century. This disease was not new either; it had long been known in China, Japan, and other eastern countries; it is called beri- beri (ber'ree-ber'ree). It, too, results in exhaustion and eventually in death. There is no bleeding as in scurvy; there is numb- ness and paralysis. The diet of these sailors was largely polished rice, the kind you or
. Adventures with animals and plants. Biology. PROBLEM I. How to Choose Foods Wisely. Fig. 196 This chicken has polyneuritis, a disease like beriberi in man. How can it be cjired? (ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION) their navy in the nineteenth century. This disease was not new either; it had long been known in China, Japan, and other eastern countries; it is called beri- beri (ber'ree-ber'ree). It, too, results in exhaustion and eventually in death. There is no bleeding as in scurvy; there is numb- ness and paralysis. The diet of these sailors was largely polished rice, the kind you ordinarily eat. Thinking that the disease might be caused by a faulty diet, the officials of the Japanese navy, about 1880, ordered that other foods be provided the men in addition to polished rice. Very soon thereafter beriberi outbreaks became less frequent. Just what was wrong with the original diet no one knew. The govern- ment officials were content, since they had hit on a better diet; but scientists were not satisfied; their curiosity had been aroused. Experiments to clear up the mystery of beriberi. Some years after the new diet 177 had been ordered and its good results had been proved, a Dutch scientist by the name of Eijkman (ike'-man) became in- terested in beriberi. He was stationed in one of the Dutch colonies in the East Indies \\ here he daily saw hundreds suf- fering from beriberi in the hospital. He had noticed that chickens living on a diet of polished rice showed the same eflFects as the patients. He used chickens, there- fore, in a carefully controlled experiment. First, he fed many of the birds a diet consisting only of polished rice. They developed a disease very much like beri- beri. Then he divided his birds into two groups; with half he continued the diet of polished rice; to the other half he gave not only the polished rice but also the "polishings" or coatings of the rice which are removed when the rice goes through the mill. Shortly after the
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