Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
Support us by turning off ad-block! Join Yado Inn’s Discord to join the community! If you like this novel, follow Flowingcloud on Twitter! Flowingcloud occasionally translates tweets from the original author.
You can read more chapters on Patreon! Feel free to donate to my Paypal too. For only $5, you can read Plastic in advance on Patreon!
Seeing is Believing
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁
“Come to think of it, Nobusuke-oniisama, what should I feed the chickens?” Youko suddenly asked Nobusuke one day while the family was having dinner.
“Well, grains like foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, and rice, I guess. I’ve heard that some people are feeding them maize these days.” 1
“Hmm. Like the commoners during the Edo period,” Nobusuke’s reply made Youko think for a moment, then she continued, “I wonder if the chicken would also obtain beriberi if they were only given rice feed.”
“Hmm, I’ve never done anything that wasteful…”
“I heard that a Dutch physician named Eijkman did that exact experiment about ten years ago,” Hiromichi butted into their conversation as Nobusuke paused his chopsticks and pondered. 2
Youko had told him about the importance of measures to prevent beriberi and had asked Hiromichi to check with a military doctor he knew to see if there had been any experiments on clues of animals that caused the outbreak of beriberi.
“Ohh! So, what were the results?”
“It seems like Eijkman concluded that, “Beriberi broke out the same way as humans. He also concluded that rice bran was effective in treating beriberi because the animals recovered after he replaced their feed with unpolished rice”.”
“Hooray! Then, all we have to do is feed the soldiers nukazuke every day…” 3
“However, it’s not that simple.”
When Youko heard this, her eyes lit up and she clapped her hands, but Hiromichi poured cold water on her idea, “Professor Aoyama Tanemichi of the Tokyo Imperial University medical college conducted the same experiment and reported, “The abnormality that appeared in chickens raised only on white rice did not appear to be beriberi”.” 4
“Huh? Did the experiment fail?” Youko, who knew the historical facts and was convinced that beriberi could not be anything other than vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency disease, confirmed with Hiromichi while holding back the urge to kill Professor Aoyama that was not present.
“It seems it’s not like that either… I do not really understand, however, the professor claimed, “The symptoms are very similar, however, the minor details were different so it was not beriberi.””
“What is that sophistry? The structure of the chicken’s body is different, so it is only natural that the detailed symptoms are different.”
“Now, now, Youko. Even Youko cannot tell the difference between the common cold, tuberculosis, and bronchitis, right? Even though the symptoms are similar, they are actually different diseases. I guess that’s how it is,” Nobusuke pacified Youko, who was getting more and more irritable by the moment.
Nobusuke did not understand why his sister was so desperate to cure beriberi, but he figured she must have some view on this matter since she was smart enough to invent a new kind of fiber at the age of four.
In fact, it was already known at that time that mugimeshi (steamed rice with pressed barley), which contained more vitamin B1 than white rice, could cure beriberi. However, this was only a rule of thumb and there was no evidence to support it. This meant that there was no reliable cure, and people were afraid of beriberi. 5
“…Let’s conduct a supplementary experiment,” Youko said with displeasure.
Medical science and nutritional science were not Youko’s areas of expertise, and every man knows their own business best, but if they were unreliable, the story is different then.
“That’s a good idea. Nobusuke, I’m sorry, but would you mind taking care of the chickens for our experiments?”
“Personally, I would love to be able to take care of chickens again, but are we really doing this?”
Hiromichi was a relatively affectionate person. When Nobusuke was hospitalized with diphtheria during his childhood, he was given a number of stuffed birds as a get-well gift. Nonetheless, Nobusuke wondered if it was okay to use the Takatsukasa’s money for this experiment, which would require a lot of chickens and food.
However, Hiromichi was not cooperating with Youko solely because she explained the heavy damages beriberi caused during the Russo-Japanese War that would occur in the future.
“During the Sino-Japanese War and the invasion of Taiwan, beriberi spread in the army. I have heard about the disastrous state of affairs of those times. If the same thing happens again when we go to war with a stronger country, there most likely would be no time to combat the situation.” 6
“I see, if that’s the case, be at ease and let us deal with this.”
“I’m asking you. I may be exaggerating, but the future of our country may depend on this experiment.”
““Understood!””
Burdened with their father’s expectations, the siblings began their challenge.
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁
Translator Note: The chapter revolves around thiamine deficiency, known as and called beriberi in the chapter. The most common symptom of beriberi is leg swelling and numbness of one’s hands and feet depending on whether you had wet or dry beriberi. Beriberi plagued the Japanese military and many died from the deficiency disease. Like the author mentioned, people knew the rule of thumb for avoiding contracting beriberi, but no one knew how to cure the disease once people got contracted it. In 1897, Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch physician and pathologist, demonstrated that beriberi is caused by poor diet, and discovered that feeding unpolished rice (instead of the polished variety) to chickens helped prevent beriberi. Between 1910 and 1913, it was established that an extract of rice bran could effectively treat beriberi.
- Flowingcloud: Never knew there were so many types of millets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proso_millet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinochloa (Barnyard Millet) - Flowingcloud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiaan_Eijkman
- Flowingcloud: Nukazuke is a type of Japanese preserved food, made by vegetables in rice bran (nuka). Almost any vegetable may be preserved using this technique, although some common varieties include eggplants, daikon, cabbage, carrots, and cucumbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nukazuke - Flowingcloud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aoyama_Tanemichi
- Flowingcloud: Barley was a frugal substitute for rice, once upon a time. Mixing barley in regular rice adds a bright and sunny taste.
- Flowingcloud: Obviously, this is the First Sino-Japanese War since the second one only occurs later in history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Taiwan_(1895)