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Beri-beri.

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In modern Japan, beriberi (or thiamin deficiency) became a public health problem that cut across all social boundaries, afflicting even the Meiji Emperor. During an age of empire building for the Japanese nation, incidence rates in the military ranged from 30 percent in peacetime to 90 percent during war. Doctors and public health officials called beriberi a "national disease" because it festered within the bodies of the people and threatened the health of the empire. Nevertheless, they could not agree over what caused the disease, attributing it to a diet deficiency or a microbe.

InBeriberi in Modern Japan, Alexander R. Bay examines the debates over the etiology of this "national disease" during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Etiological consensus came after World War I, but the struggle at the national level to direct beriberi prevention continued, peaking during wartime mobilization. War served as the context within which scientific knowledge of beriberi and its prevention was made. The story of beriberi research is not simply about the march toward the inevitable discovery of "the beriberi vitamin," but rather the history of the role of medicine in state-making and empire-building in modern Japan.

Alexander Bay is assistant professor of history at Chapman University.

Beri-beri --- Diet --- History.

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Beri-beri. --- Beriberi --- Beri-beri. --- epidemiology --- Dutch East Indies.

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Around the turn of the twentieth century, disorders that Chinese physicians had been writing about for over a millennium acquired new identities in Western medicine—sudden turmoil became cholera; flowers of heaven became smallpox; and foot qi became beriberi. Historians have tended to present these new identities as revelations, overlooking evidence that challenges Western ideas about these conditions. In Forgotten Disease, Hilary A. Smith argues that, by privileging nineteenth century sources, we misrepresent what traditional Chinese doctors were seeing and doing, therefore unfairly viewing their medicine as inferior. Drawing on a wide array of sources, ranging from early Chinese classics to modern scientific research, Smith traces the history of one representative case, foot qi, from the fourth century to the present day. She examines the shifting meanings of disease over time, showing that each transformation reflects the social, political, intellectual, and economic environment. The breathtaking scope of this story offers insights into the world of early Chinese doctors and how their ideas about health, illness, and the body were developing far before the advent of modern medicine. Smith highlights the fact that modern conceptions of these ancient diseases create the impression that the West saved the Chinese from age-old afflictions, when the reality is that many prominent diseases in China were actually brought over as a result of imperialism. She invites the reader to reimagine a history of Chinese medicine that celebrates its complexity and nuance, rather than uncritically disdaining this dynamic form of healing.

Beri-beri --- Medicine --- Foot --- Medical literature --- Life sciences literature --- Feet --- Paw --- Paws --- Leg --- Health Workforce --- Kakké --- Deficiency diseases --- History. --- Diseases --- S21/0300 --- History --- China: Medicine, public health and food--Chinese medicine: general

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Beri-beri --- Diet --- Beriberi --- Thiamine Deficiency --- History, 19th Century --- History, 20th Century --- 20th Cent. History (Medicine) --- 20th Cent. History of Medicine --- 20th Cent. Medicine --- Historical Events, 20th Century --- History of Medicine, 20th Cent. --- History, Twentieth Century --- Medical History, 20th Cent. --- Medicine, 20th Cent. --- 20th Century History --- 20th Cent. Histories (Medicine) --- 20th Century Histories --- Cent. Histories, 20th (Medicine) --- Cent. History, 20th (Medicine) --- Century Histories, 20th --- Century Histories, Twentieth --- Century History, 20th --- Century History, Twentieth --- Histories, 20th Cent. (Medicine) --- Histories, 20th Century --- Histories, Twentieth Century --- History, 20th Cent. (Medicine) --- Twentieth Century Histories --- Twentieth Century History --- 19th Cent. History (Medicine) --- 19th Cent. History of Medicine --- 19th Cent. Medicine --- Historical Events, 19th Century --- History of Medicine, 19th Cent. --- History, Nineteenth Century --- Medical History, 19th Cent. --- Medicine, 19th Cent. --- 19th Century History --- 19th Cent. Histories (Medicine) --- 19th Century Histories --- Cent. Histories, 19th (Medicine) --- Cent. History, 19th (Medicine) --- Century Histories, 19th --- Century Histories, Nineteenth --- Century History, 19th --- Century History, Nineteenth --- Histories, 19th Cent. (Medicine) --- Histories, 19th Century --- Histories, Nineteenth Century --- History, 19th Cent. (Medicine) --- Nineteenth Century Histories --- Nineteenth Century History --- Health --- Food --- Food habits --- Nutrition --- Kakké --- Deficiency diseases --- History --- history --- Japan. --- Bonin Islands --- J7910 --- Japan: Science and technology -- medical science -- public health and general hygiene