Beriberi (vitamin B1 or thiamin deficiency disease) is attributed to a predominantly white rice diet that lacks such thiamin-rich foods such as whole grains, beans, and pork. The geography of this affliction encompassed India, Southeast Asia, southern China, and Japan. Y'amashita Seizö, a retired Tokyo University doctor who specializes in vitamin B research, has written four monographs on the history of beriberi in Japan, the most recent being Ogai Mori rintaro to kakkefiunso(Mori Ögai and the Beriberi Dispute). Although he is not an academically trained historian, his background as a Tokyo University scientist makes him an authority on the beriberi archive. Nevertheless, his studies are limited to a "Whiggish" interpretation of history that narrates the inevitable progress toward the discovery of vitamins. Yamashita often cites the immature field of nutritional studies- that is, "vitamins had not yet been discovered". -to justify the decisions of his Tokyo University forebears (387-88). Over the past thirty years, critical science studies have demonstrated the socially and historically constructed characteristics of science, medicine, and technology as well as revealed that imperfect knowledge often has been the product of deliberate and value-laden omissions. Indeed, the term nature itself has been shown to be a construction (Golinski 1998). Yamashita does not engage the larger historiography of medical history to inform his study, nor does he elucidate how his narrative adds to a greater understanding of Japanese history. In short, there is a general lack of critical analysis. He also misrepresents the historical record to defend the protagonist of his latest book.
