From The New England Journal of Medicine, August 24, 2000For much of the past century, beriberi played a bit part on the stage of medical history as the disease that initially prompted the identification of vitamins and the elucidation of their role in human well-being. The Dutch colonial scientist Christiaan Eijkman, who noted that his chickens came down with beriberi when fed an experimental diet of white rice, has entered nutritional folklore along with James Lind and his lime and Joseph Goldberger and his elucidation of pellagra....