Reprints of articles contributed to medical journals, 1895-1909 / by John D. Gimlette.

  • Gimlette, John D. (John Desmond), 1867-1934
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reprints of articles contributed to medical journals, 1895-1909 / by John D. Gimlette. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    79/160 (page 75)
    BERIBERI; MOULDY RICE: THE OCCUR- RENCE OF BERI BERI IN THE SOKOR DISTRICT. The inference that beri-beri, as it occurs in British Malaya, is due to mouldy rice was taken some years ago as the basis of an argument by Mr. Leonard Braddon, F.R.C.S., State Surgeon of Negri Sembilan, in the Federated Malay States [1]. It excited a good deal of local discussion at the time, and the mouldy rice theory was again lately revived by Dr. S. Lucy Colonial Surgeon, Penang [2], and still more recently urged by Charles Hose, Esq., D.Sc., Divisional Resi- dent of Sarawak, in North Borneo [3]. It is a theory, and there are many who are not satisfied with the circumstantial evidence which has been brought forward to support it, while there are others, notably, Dr. E. A. 0. Travers, State Surgeon of Selangor, who have decidedly disagreed with Mr. Braddon’s original contention that the probable cause of beri-beri is a toxin conveyed in certain forms of rice [4].* The following notes were taken in the interior of Kelantan, a distant State in the Malay Peninsula, about 350 miles north of Singapore. Three years ago mining operations were commenced in Kelantan by a British Svndicate which was soon formed into a large Company, to which I was appointed the first resident medical adviser. The native State of Kelantan had not hitherto been explored by any European miners. * Many others who hare spent years in exhaustive research work on beri-beri hare entirely rejected the rice theory. The cause of beri-beri however, has not yet been definitely proved by them to Science, and for this reason I think that any new evidence which appears to support the rice theory is worthy of their attention.