Viewing page 4 of 7

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:06:43]
{SPEAKER name="Robert R. Williams"}
great increase in effectiveness in these countries as compared with the United States is that we never did have the deficiencies in such severe form, and- as they are prevalent in all rice-eating Asia, even today. The greatest focus of beriberi in the world today, and has been for 40 years, is the Philippines, where the American government was once in control and where much of the early work on the identification of this vitamin was done, but beriberi still remains a problem for the public health officer, which- who needs the support of public opinion before he can master the problem.

[00:07:27]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Actually, you saw beriberi first in Manila, didn't you, when you were there, some time ago?

[00:07:34]
{SPEAKER name="Robert R. Williams"}
Yes, I was introduced to it in 1910.

[00:07:38]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
And you sort of, perhaps, had a resolve then that you might do something about it.

[00:07:42]
{SPEAKER name="Robert R. Williams"}
Yes I did, and I still count myself as an apostle to the underfed of the world rather than to the obese people in this country. This problem of obesity is very important but the other one still remains, and that's my job.

[00:07:55]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Well, as a result of you using some of the royalties from this thiamine invention, I believe you've created the Williams-Waterman Fund for the Combat of Dietary Diseases and that actually has carried on research and also introduction of thiamine into these countries now. Puerto Rico's getting along pretty well on enriched rice, isn't it?

[00:08:22]
{SPEAKER name="Robert R. Williams"}
Yes, Puerto Rico adopted rice enrichment in 1951 and has carried it out very effectively, there's been no particular problem there. However, we have not succeeded in bringing about the systematic general enrichment of rice in any other of the rice-eating countries of the world. Our biggest effort has been in the Philippines where my work began and