The New Disease

faintest testimony of any past outbreak of this strange malady which seems to be gradually creeping onwards through the town and its suburbs. This therefore may be accepted as an indisputable fact. But if new to Calcutta, is the disease new to India ? Discarding the outbreaks which have occurred in Midnapore, Dacca, Sylhet, Cachar and Shillong which appear to be provincial offshoots of the metropolitan outbreak, there is a belief which is gaining ground among medical men who have studied the disease, that this is no other than the Beri-beri of Madras and Ceylon. On this point Dr. Harvey's speech at the Society supplies instructive comment. The knowledge of Beri-beri which most of us in Calcutta possess is derived from books, and the descriptions given are not very uniform or consistent?are moreover, in many cases, associated with views regarding causation which