Adolphe Vorderman
Encyclopedia
Adolphe Guillaume Vorderman (12 December 1844, The Hague
, The Netherlands - 15 July 1902, Batavia, Dutch East Indies) was a Dutch
physician
and scientist
whose extensive and scrupulous study of the link between polished rice and Beriberi
in the Dutch East Indies
in 1897 helped lead to the discovery of vitamins. Adolphe Vorderman is the great-grandfather of British
television presenter Carol Vorderman
.
to the Dutch East Indies
(now Indonesia
) to try to determine the cause, and find a cure for, Beriberi. He noticed that chickens fed polished rice - which is rice which has had its bran removed - developed a similar paralysis in their legs. Before he could follow up on this line of enquiry, ill health forced him to return home to the Netherlands. Before leaving he asked his friend Adolphe Vorderman, who was Chief Medical Officer, to continue the research on the link between rice and the disease.
Vorderman, who had already noted that Beriberi occurred a lot in some prisons, but very little in others, decided to conduct a preliminary survey of the type of rice served in a sample of prisons. When that initial study seemed to confirm a link, he decided to conduct a complete study of all prisons.
In 1897 Vorderman visited all of the around 100 prisons on the island of Java. He took samples of the prison rice and examined the prison records to determine the number of Beriberi cases. He kept the real purpose of his visits secret so that word did not get around the Chinese rice suppliers and lead them to change the type of rice they provided.
Later he conducted blind testing with rice experts to discover the make-up and origin of the rice varieties he found in the prison samples.
Vorderman found that in the prisons using mostly brown rice, the incidence of Beriberi was less than 1 in 10,000. In the prisons serving mainly polished white rice the proportion was 1 in 39. In his published report, he concluded that this marked difference could not be explained by any other nutritional or sanitary factor.
Later others, including Gerrit Grijns, took over the research which ultimately led to the discovery of vitamins. In the case of Beriberi, the vitamin that was lost when the bran was removed was thiamin - vitamin B1.
In a 2007 episode of the BBC
genealogical
documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, Carol Vorderman researched her great grandfather Adolphe. In the episode, the Director of the Eijkman Institute stated his opinion that had he still been alive at the time, Adolphe Vorderman should have shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Eijkman and Sir Frederick Hopkins, who were awarded the prize in 1929 for their vitamin related work.
And for more about Adolphe Vorderman see link: Adolphe Vorderman By Gercon Vorderman
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, The Netherlands - 15 July 1902, Batavia, Dutch East Indies) was a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
whose extensive and scrupulous study of the link between polished rice and Beriberi
Beriberi
Beriberi is a nervous system ailment caused by a thiamine deficiency in the diet. Thiamine is involved in the breakdown of energy molecules such as glucose and is also found on the membranes of neurons...
in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
in 1897 helped lead to the discovery of vitamins. Adolphe Vorderman is the great-grandfather of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television presenter Carol Vorderman
Carol Vorderman
Carol Jean Vorderman MBE is a British media personality, best known for co-hosting the popular game show Countdown for 26 years from 1982 to 2008. In September 2011 she became a co-anchor of the ITV1 panel show Loose Women....
.
Beriberi study
In 1883 The Dutch government sent Christiaan EijkmanChristiaan Eijkman
Christiaan Eijkman was a Dutch physician and professor of physiology whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins...
to the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
(now Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
) to try to determine the cause, and find a cure for, Beriberi. He noticed that chickens fed polished rice - which is rice which has had its bran removed - developed a similar paralysis in their legs. Before he could follow up on this line of enquiry, ill health forced him to return home to the Netherlands. Before leaving he asked his friend Adolphe Vorderman, who was Chief Medical Officer, to continue the research on the link between rice and the disease.
Vorderman, who had already noted that Beriberi occurred a lot in some prisons, but very little in others, decided to conduct a preliminary survey of the type of rice served in a sample of prisons. When that initial study seemed to confirm a link, he decided to conduct a complete study of all prisons.
In 1897 Vorderman visited all of the around 100 prisons on the island of Java. He took samples of the prison rice and examined the prison records to determine the number of Beriberi cases. He kept the real purpose of his visits secret so that word did not get around the Chinese rice suppliers and lead them to change the type of rice they provided.
Later he conducted blind testing with rice experts to discover the make-up and origin of the rice varieties he found in the prison samples.
Vorderman found that in the prisons using mostly brown rice, the incidence of Beriberi was less than 1 in 10,000. In the prisons serving mainly polished white rice the proportion was 1 in 39. In his published report, he concluded that this marked difference could not be explained by any other nutritional or sanitary factor.
Later others, including Gerrit Grijns, took over the research which ultimately led to the discovery of vitamins. In the case of Beriberi, the vitamin that was lost when the bran was removed was thiamin - vitamin B1.
In a 2007 episode of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
genealogical
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, Carol Vorderman researched her great grandfather Adolphe. In the episode, the Director of the Eijkman Institute stated his opinion that had he still been alive at the time, Adolphe Vorderman should have shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Eijkman and Sir Frederick Hopkins, who were awarded the prize in 1929 for their vitamin related work.
And for more about Adolphe Vorderman see link: Adolphe Vorderman By Gercon Vorderman