CO129-346 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [1-3] — Page 388

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BERIBERI AND OUP SIK,

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A large number of cases of heriteri are brought to the

Mortuary

and scarcely a month goes by without a certair amount of work being done on it. Beriheri as a cause of death amonest adults in this Colony is more important than Malaria and ranks he- -hind plague and tuberculosis only.

Three years ago I expressed the opinion that whatever the parasite of herikeri might be it would turn out to be a protozoan, not a hacterium. I need not go at length into the matter but a full account of my reasons was published in the Indian Medical Gazette in ay 1905 and Dr. Danielfs subsequent- -ly expressed a very similar opinion about beriberi in his 'observation in the Federated Malay States on heriberi",

I have done my best not only during the last four months but since coming to Hongkong to find a parasite of hertheri by histological examinations, I have used Leishmans' and

Giemsas' stains for smears of every kind of tissue and fluid of bodies that have died in different stages of heriberi hut without success. I have also searched in the common ecto-par- ∙asites of man, pediculus corporis and pediculus capitis,

Of course the parasite may be of ultramicroscopic size.

One of the greatest difficulties about the study of heriberi is that it has never with certainty heen reproduced in any

animal though some observers have made numerous attemps. I