1835.—(On the Maldives) "... the crew of the vessels during the survey ... suffered mostly from two diseases; the Beri-beri which attacked the Indians only, and generally proved fatal."—Young and Christopher, in Tr. Ro. Geog. Soc., vol. i.
1837.—"Empyreumatic oil called oleum nigrum, from the seeds of Celastrus nutans (Malkungnee) described in Mr. Malcolmson's able prize Essay on the Hist. and Treatment of Beriberi ... the most efficacious remedy in that intractable complaint."—Royle on Hindu Medicine, 46.
1880.—"A malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called Kakké.... It excites a most singular dread. It is considered to be the same disease as that which, under the name of Beriberi, makes such havoc at times on crowded jails and barracks."—Miss Bird's Japan, i. 288.
1882.—"Berbá, a disease which consists in great swelling of the abdomen."—Blumentritt, Vocabular, s.v.
1885.—"Dr. Wallace Taylor, of Osaka, Japan, reports important discoveries respecting the origin of the disease known as beri-beri. He has traced it to a microscopic spore largely developed in rice. He has finally detected the same organism in the earth of certain alluvial and damp localities."—St. James's Gazette, Aug. 9th.
Also see Report on Prison Admin. in Br. Burma, for 1878, p. 26.
BERYL, s. This word is perhaps a very ancient importation from India to the West, it having been supposed that its origin was the Skt. vaidūrya, Prak. velūriya, whence [Malay baiduri and biduri], P. billaur, and Greek βήρυλλος. Bochart points out the probable identity of the two last words by the transposition of l and r. Another transposition appears to have given Ptolemy his Ὀρούδια ὄρη (for the Western Ghats), representing probably the native Vaidūrya mountains. In Ezekiel xxvii. 13, the Sept. has Βηρύλλιον, where the Hebrew now has tarshīsh, [another word with probably the same meaning being shohsm (see Professor Ridgeway in Encycl. Bibl. s.v. Beryl)]. Professor Max Müller has treated of the possible relation between vaidūrya and vidāla, 'a cat,' and in connection with this observes that "we should, at all events, have learnt the useful lesson that the chapter of accidents is sometimes larger than we suppose."—(India, What can it Teach us?" p. 267). This is a lesson which many articles in our book suggest; and in dealing with the same words, it may be indicated that the resemblance between the Greek αἴλουρος, bilaur, a common H. word for a cat, and the P. billaur, 'beryl,' are at least additional illustrations of the remark quoted.
c. A.D. 70.—"Beryls ... from India they come as from their native place, for seldom are they to be found elsewhere.... Those are best accounted of which carrie a sea-water greene."—Pliny, Bk. XXXVII. cap. 20 (in P. Holland, ii. 613).
c. 150.—"Πυννάτα ἐν ᾗ βήρυλλος."—Ptolemy, l. vii.
BETEL, s. The leaf of the Piper betel, L., chewed with the dried [areca]-nut (which is thence improperly called betel-nut, a mistake as old as Fryer—1673,—see p. 40), chunam, etc., by the natives of India and the Indo-Chinese countries. The word is Malayāl. veṭṭila, i.e. veru + ila = 'simple or mere leaf,' and comes to us through the Port. betre and betle. [Pawn] (q.v.) is the term more generally used by modern Anglo-Indians. In former times the betel-leaf was in S. India the subject of a monopoly of the E. I. Co.