78 "Diagnosis and Treatment of Obscure Pelvic Abscess," etc., Arch. of Med., December, 1880.
BERIBERI.
BY DUANE B. SIMMONS, M.D.
DEFINITION.—Beriberi is a disease of inanition, most common in tropical countries, though found in high latitudes (41° N.), especially in low-lying seaboard towns, during the summer months, and is both endemic and epidemic. It is usually chronic in form, but is subject to exacerbations of varying degrees, and has for its characteristic symptoms anæsthesia of the skin, hyperæsthesia and paralysis of the muscles, anasarca, palpitation, cardiac and arterial murmurs (in the wet form), præcordial oppression, and abdominal pulsation.
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.—It was for a long time confounded with a great variety of other diseases. The Anglo-Indian physicians of Ceylon and the Malabar coast were no doubt the first to recognize the specific nature of the disease, though it is claimed that Chinese medical works of the thirteenth century contain a fairly accurate description of it.
The literature of beriberi, at the first glance, appears to be very meagre, as some of the most popular medical works make no mention of the disease at all, while others only give it a passing notice. Its bibliography, however, is very considerable, as may be seen in the exhaustive list in Billings' Index Catalogue, but for want of space we refer only to the most recent contributions to the subject. These are—an article by A. LeRoy de Mericourt;1 an essay by Tarissan, entitled Beriberi in Brazil; an article by Anderson,2 and an essay by myself.3
1 Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Sciences Médicales, Paris, 1876.