Beri-beri : researches concerning its nature and cause and the means of its arrest, made by order of the Netherlands government / by C.A. Pekelharing ... and C. Winkler ... Tr. by James Cantlie.

  • Cornelis Adrianus Pekelharing
Date:
[1893]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Beri-beri : researches concerning its nature and cause and the means of its arrest, made by order of the Netherlands government / by C.A. Pekelharing ... and C. Winkler ... Tr. by James Cantlie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ceeding further. Erb and Ziemssen have taught us that when a complete section of a nerve is made, one can ascertain, along with the qualitative modifications of the direct irritability of the nerves, an augmentation of this irritability for the continuous current. We have, however, recorded amongst the first symptoms a diminution of irritability. Therefore we might be accused of not having carefully observed the initial symptoms, or, at any rate, it might be objected that the modification in the state of the tissues, such as a slight oedema, &c, had so altered the distribution of the currents, that our definitions lost their value. This is why it has been peculiarly agreeable to us to point out that, in the true subacute form of beri-beri, some conditions, which, however different they may be. from the preceding, are, to speak truly, a solid support to the conclusions which we have arrived at. The symptoms observed in subacute and so called acute beri- beri, one would naturally consider, should present a different variety of nerve lesion to that met with in the purely chronic form; and it seems probable that the former, owing to the rapidity of its development, would more nearly resemble the condition met with as the result of the cut nerve. In works on beri-beri, here and there mention is made of cramp in the limbs. Although it might almost be expected from the nature of the disease that cramps should occur, more especially during the exacerbations of the disease, we have only met with one case of real cramp in our experience, but this was a very well marked one. One may, it is true, in many beri-beri patients, come across some threatenings of cramps; but we have only once seen beri-beri of the convulsive type that Overbeck de Meyer has so carefully described. We record this case because of the great value we attach to it, as affording an excellent example of beri-beri of the subacute type. Case IV. (Subacute type).—E., a European, born in Fries- land, aged 24 years, had resided for the last sixteen months in Sumatra. As a boy, in Holland, he had often had fever, but otherwise enjoyed good health. After staying a few days at Meester-Cornelis he left for Padang. In June 1886, he was sent to Atjeh, where he had very laborious duty at one of
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