The early symptoms of beri-beri are fatigue and depression; numbness and stiffness in the legs; more or less edema of the ankles and face, followed by tenderness of the calf muscles, and tingling or burning sensations in the feet, legs and arms. There are two types of the disease, the dry and the wet. In the dry type, wasting anesthesia and paralysis are the chief symptoms, while the most marked evidences of the wet type are the edema, which may be excessive, affecting the entire body. The death rate from beri-beri is usually high. We are accustomed to thinking of this disease as occurring chiefly among the Orientals, for it was long confined to Southern China, Japan, the Dutch East Indies and the Malay Peninsula. But it may occur among any people whose diet is poor in those foods containing the particular substance which protects against it. It is common in Newfoundland and Labrador and certain parts of South America and among people who eat little aside from staple, non-perishable, cereal products, wheat bread made from bolted flour, fish and salt meats. An evidence of this near at home was an outbreak of typical beri-beri, in the jail at Elizabeth, N. J., in 1914, caused by the faulty diet of the inmates. The disease may be prevented or cured only by including in the diet such food as milk, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables. =Xerophthalmia= is a deficiency disease characterized by eye lesions and due to a lack of, or deficiency in the diet of the protective substance which has been designated as fat-soluble A. This substance is absent in polished rice, and present in but small amounts in barley and other cereals; in muscle cuts of meat; in peas, beans and other vegetables excepting those described as “leafy.” It is contained in cod-liver oil, butter, cream, egg yolk, liver, kidneys and the leafy vegetables. In the early stages of the disease the eyes are inflamed and the lids badly swollen. If the diet is wholly lacking in fat-soluble A, the disease progresses rapidly, the eye balls frequently rupture and the lens and vitreous humor are expelled, with total and permanent blindness as the tragic result. On the other hand, the malady clears up in a very spectacular manner if, in the early stages, the patient is fed those foods which contain the mysterious, but indispensable fat-soluble A. [Illustration: FIG. 140.—This baby is totally blind in the left eye as a result of ulcers, due to a long continued diet of cereals with a little skimmed milk; in other words, a diet poor in fat-soluble A. The right eye became involved but administration of cod-liver oil was followed by speedy recovery and partial vision was saved. There is little doubt but that the baby would have been totally blind had the faulty diet been continued. (From the Newer Knowledge of Nutrition, by E. V. McCollum.) ]