Beriberi and Scurvy

Scurvy

Scurvy

Scurvy

People write to ask me if the dose is to be half a drachm or half an ounce, so it is as well to say half an ounce unmistakably, or the drug might fall into undeserved disrepute. I am asked if the patients whose swollen legs I describe may not have been suifering from Beri-beri. I believe not. The cases yielded readily to the usual antiscorbutic treatment, while Beri-beri requires turpentine.

Beriberi: Etiological and Clinical Considerations

Beriberi was recognised by the Chinese 3000 B.c. Tlhe etiology, however, remained obscure till 1870. In that year Eijkman, working in Java, notedl an epidemic of paralysis among fowls fed on polished rice. He found that this polyneuritis gallinarum could be cured if an extract of rice polishings were added to the diet. That polyneuritis gallinarum corresponded to human beriberi was shown by Fra...

Acute Dropsy (Beriberi?.)

finement in which she lives; menstruates regularly; liver and spleen of normal size ; no tenderness on pressure over either organ. The disease began about the middle of October, when she suffered from slight diarrhoea and profuse discharge of urine. I afterwards noticed that her feet and legs began to swell; the swelling came on gradually, and was hardly noticed at first: as it progressed she s...