Dr Edward Bright Vedder (1878-1952) was a U.S. Army physician, a noted researcher on deficiency diseases, and a medical educator. He studied beriberi, a deficiency disease affecting the peripheral nerves, establishing polished rice extract as its proper treatment . The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States armed forces and has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Beriberi is a nervous system ailment caused by niacin (vitamin B1) deficiency; its symptoms include weight loss, emotional disturbances, impaired sensory perception (Wernickes encephalopathy), weakness and pain in the limbs, and periods of irregular heart rate. ...

Biography

Vedder was born in New York City to Henry Clay Vedder, a Baptist clergyman, and Minnie Lingham Vedder. He was educated at the University of Rochester (Ph.B., 1898) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.D., 1902 and M.S., 1903). At Penn he did research on dysentery with Simon Flexner. Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1613  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... A Baptist is a member of a Baptist church or any follower of Jesus Christ who believes that baptism is administered by the full immersion of a confessing Christian. ... The University of Rochester is a private, coeducational and nonsectarian research institution located in Rochester, New York. ... This article is about the private university in Philadelphia. ... Dysentery is an illness (formerly known as the bloody flux or simply flux) involving severe diarrhea that is often associated with blood in the feces. ... Simon Flexner (March 25, 1863 - May 2, 1946) was a physician, administrator, and professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania. ...

In 1903, he was commissioned an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, and continued his studies at the Army Medical School (AMS) in Washington, D.C., graduating the next year. Medical Corps may refer to: Medical Corps (United States Army), a branch of the US Army Medical Department Navy Medical Corps, a staff corps of the US Navy Royal Army Medical Corps, a specialist corps of the Army Medical Services of the British Army Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, part... Founded by U.S. Army Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg, MD in 1893, the Army Medical School (AMS) was by some reckonings the worlds first school of public health and preventive medicine. ...

He then served in the Philippines, where he saw and studied tropical diseases (especially beriberi and scurvy). U.S. Army medical officers were conducting much research into the possible causes of beriberi, initially using animal subjects. Vedder became convinced by the work of Christiaan Rijkman and Gerrit Grijns and others that beri-beri was indeed caused by a nutritional deficiency. He enlisted the help of Robert R. Williams of the Bureau of Science in Manila in isolating the "anti-beri-beri factor". In 1911, Vedder and Maj. Weston P. Chamberlain, who had become members of the Tropical Disease Board in 1910, began experimenting with the treatment of infantile beriberi with an extract of rice polishings (or partially milled rice, an alcohol-based extract of rice hulls). Williams set out to isolate the ingredient responsible, but his work was deferred with a career change to chemistry for Bell Telephone Company. Other physicians had already tried feeding the polishings to nursing mothers. Believing the problem to be a poison in the mother's milk, they required that each baby be exclusively bottle-fed until the mother's treatment had been completed. Vedder and Chamberlain cured 15 infants whose mothers had symptoms of beriberi by supplementing each mother's milk with an extract of rice polishings and allowing nursing to continue. In every case, regardless of the seriousness of the baby's condition, the cure was rapid and complete. The experiment demonstrated conclusively that beriberi was a deficiency disease rather than the result of a toxin in the mother's milk. In 1913 Vedder published a seminal book on the subject. (As an aside, work slowdown during the Great Depression allowed Williams to return to beri-beri research, and it was not until 1933 when he successfully isolated its vitamin preventative in quantity. In 1936 he first synthesized it and named it thiamine -- vitamin B1 having been its original designation.) Scurvy (N.Lat. ... The City of Manila (Filipino: Lungsod ng Maynila), or simply Manila, is the capital of the Philippines. ... Bell Telephone Company can refer to: The Bell System, a name and trademark formerly given to AT&T. Bell Canada Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company, a former company in Antwerp (Belgium), now part of Alcatel The original Bell Telephone Company was founded in 1878 by Alexander Graham Bells father in... The Great Depression was an economic downturn which started in 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s. ... For the similarly-spelled nucleic acid, see Thymine Thiamine or thiamin, also known as vitamin B1, is a colorless compound with chemical formula C12H17N5O4S. It is soluble in water and insoluble in alcohol. ...

Vedder returned (1913) to the United States and was appointed assistant professor of pathology at the AMS. He also undertook research on scurvy that helped lead others to the discovery that ascorbic acid is a vitamin. He discovered that emetine, the active ingredient of the ancient emetic ipecacuanha, is an amoebicide and therefore effective against amoebic dysentery. He also did research on leprosy, syphilis, dysentery, and whooping cough. He became director (1919) of the Southern Department Laboratory at Fort Sam Houston, Texas and later chief of medical research (1922-25) at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. This article deals with the molecular aspects of ascorbic acid. ... Retinol (Vitamin A) Vitamins are nutrients required in very small amounts for essential metabolic reactions in the body [1]. The term vitamin does not include other essential nutrients such as dietary minerals, essential fatty acids, or essential amino acids, nor does it encompass the large number of other nutrients that... Binomial name Psychotria ipecacuanha Ipecacuanha (Psychotria ipecacuanha) of family Rubiaceae is a flowering plant, the root of which is most commonly used to make syrup of ipecac, a powerful emetic. ... Dysentery is an illness involving severe diarrhea that is often associated with blood in the feces. ... Leprosy, also known as Hansens disease,[1] is an infectious disease caused by a DNA plasmid (transposon, or ultravirus, a small circle of DNA) carried in Hansens bacillus (the Mycobacterium leprae bacterium) which is thus the vector. ... Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by a spirochaete bacterium, Treponema pallidum. ... Dysentery is an illness (formerly known as the bloody flux or simply flux) involving severe diarrhea that is often associated with blood in the feces. ... Fort Sam Houston is a U.S. Army post in San Antonio, Texas. ... Aberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army proving ground located in Harford County, Maryland. ... Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,417 sq mi (32,160 km²)  - Width 90 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37°53N to 39°43N  - Longitude 75°4W to 79°33...

In 1925, Vedder returned to Manila as senior member of the Army Board for Medical Research. Four years later, he returned to Washington and in the following year assumed command of the AMS.

After his retirement from the Army in 1933 he became professor of experimental medicine at George Washington University. In 1942 he was appointed Director of Medical Education at the Alameda County Hospital (California) and laboratory director of the Highland County Hospital (Oakland), posts that he retained until his retirement in 1947.   See Washington University (disambiguation) for institutions with similar names. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Oakland is the name of several places in the United States of America: Oakland, Alabama Oakland, California (The best-known city with this name) Oakland, Florida Oakland, Maine Oakland, Maryland Oakland, Michigan Oakland, Missouri Oakland, Nebraska Oakland, New Jersey Oakland, Oklahoma Oakland, Oregon Oakland, Pennsylvania Oakland, Rhode Island Oakland, Tennessee...

Legacy

• The North Pavilion or “Vedder Pavilion” of Building 40 on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center is named for him.

This article is about the U.S. Army medical center/hospital (not the research institute). ...

Selected works

• Vedder, E.B., Beriberi, New York: William Wood and Company (1913), his best known monograph
• Vedder, E.B., The Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (1925)
• Vedder, E.B., The Pathology of Beriberi, JAMA 110 (1938), pp. 893–896.

JAMA is the acronym for the Journal of the American Medical Association, a leading medical journal. ...

See also

• Beri-beri
• Army Medical School

Beri-beri is a nutritional disease, deficiency in vitamin 1 (thiamine). ... Founded by U.S. Army Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg, MD in 1893, the Army Medical School (AMS) was by some reckonings the worlds first school of public health and preventive medicine. ...

External link

• The Papers of Edward Bright Vedder (1902-1943) at the University of Rochester