The basal metabolism in vitamin B starvation has been much discussed by various workers in recent years. The earliest article now available to us is that of Caspari and Moszkowski.1 After practical experience during research in New Guinea, Moszkowski concluded that the so-called beriberi of man is a disease of metabolism essentially due to the ingestion of polished rice, a view which was contradicted by other workers. To verify this opinion, Moszkowski offered to make experiments on himself. He was kept under observation by Caspari and others. About a month after the beginning of the rice diet, clinical symptoms began to appear, which eventually became significant. The chief symptoms were: general wandering neuralgia, tenderness of the muscles and skin, especially of the calf muscles, Lasègue's symptom, paresthesia and numbness of the hands and feet, weakness and somnolence, a sense of restriction in the chest, lability of the pulse, edema of