Takaki Kanehiro 高木 兼寛 | |
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 Takaki Kanehiro | |
| Born | (1849-10-30)30 October 1849 |
| Died | 12 April 1920(1920-04-12) (aged 70) |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Known for | naval physician |
BaronTakaki Kanehiro (高木 兼寛, 30 October 1849 – 12 April 1920) was a Japanese navalphysician. He is known for his work on preventing the vitamin deficiency diseaseberiberi among sailors in the Japanese navy, who had been living mainly on whiterice.
Born in Takaoka-cho,Hyūga Province (present-dayMiyazaki Prefecture) as the son of asamurai retainer to theSatsuma domain, Takaki Kanehiro studiedChinese medicine as a youth and served as a medic in theBoshin War. He later studied western medical science under British doctorWilliam Willis (in Japan 1861–1881). Takaki entered theImperial Japanese Navy as a medical officer in 1872. He was sent toGreat Britain for medical studies in 1875, and interned atSt Thomas's Hospital Medical School now part ofKing's College London inLondon. He returned to Japan in 1880.[1]
At the time,beriberi (considered endemic to Japan) was a serious problem on warships and was affecting naval efficiency. Takaki knew that beriberi was not common amongWestern navies. He also noticed that Japanese naval officers, whose diet consisted of various types of vegetables and meat, rarely suffered from beriberi. On the other hand, the disease was common among ordinary crewmen, whose diet consisted almost exclusively of whiterice (which was supplied free, whereas other foods had to be purchased). Many crewmen from poor families, who had to send money back home, often tried to save money by eating nothing but rice.[1]
In 1883 Takaki learned of a high incidence of beriberi among cadets on a training mission from Japan to Hawaii, via New Zealand and South America that lasted for 9 months. On board, 169 men out of 376 developed the disease and 25 died. Takaki made a petition toEmperor Meiji to fund an experiment with an improved diet for the seamen that included more barley, meat, milk, bread and vegetables. He succeeded, and in 1884, another mission took the same route, but this time only sixteen beriberi cases among 333 seamen were reported. This experiment convinced the Imperial Japanese Navy that poor diet was the prime factor in beriberi, and the disease was soon eliminated from the fleet.[2]
Takaki's success occurred ten years beforeChristiaan Eijkman, working inBatavia, advanced his theory that beriberi was caused by anutritional deficiency, with his later identification ofvitamin B1 earning Eijkman the 1929Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[3]
Although Takaki clearly established that the cause was due tonutritional issues, this conflicted with the prevailing idea among medical scientists that beriberi was aninfectious disease. TheImperial Japanese Army, which was dominated byMori Ōgai and other doctors fromTokyo Imperial University, persisted in their belief that beriberi was an infectious disease, and refused to implement a remedy for decades. In theRusso-Japanese War of 1904–1905, over 200,000 soldiers suffered from beriberi – 27,000 fatally, compared to 47,000 deaths fromcombat.[4]
In 1905, Takaki was ennobled with the title ofdanshaku (baron) under thekazoku peerage system for his contribution of eliminating beriberi from the Imperial Japanese Navy, and also awarded theOrder of the Rising Sun (first class). He was later affectionately nicknamed "Barley Baron".[1]
Takaki founded the Sei-I-Kwai medical society in January 1881. In May, 1881, he founded the Sei-I-Kwai Koshujo (Sei-I-Kwai Medical Training School), now theJikei University School of Medicine. Takaki's school was the first private medical college in Japan, and was the first in Japan to have studentsdissect human cadavers.
Takaki was posthumously honored by having a peninsula inAntarctica at65°33′S64°34′W / 65.550°S 64.567°W /-65.550; -64.567 named "Takaki Promontory" in his honor. It is the only peninsula in Antarctica named after a Japanese person.
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