3.He had survived pellagra in Persia, scurvy in the Malayan archipelago, leprosy in Alexandria, beriberi in Japan, bubonic plague in Madagascar, an earthquake in Sicily, and a disastrous shipwreck in the Strait of Magellan.
4.He began to consider the possibility that eating unpolished rice somehow prevented or cured " beriberi" -even that a lack of some element in the husk might be the cause of the disease.
5.The element needed to prevent " beriberi" was shortly afterwards isolated from rice husks and is now known as vitamin B. Nowadays, this terrible disease is much less common thanks to our know-edge of vitamins.