Etymology
The origin of the term is unclear, although several hypotheses have been suggested. One hypothesis is that it comes from a Sinhalese phrase meaning "weak, weak" or "I cannot, I cannot", the word being reduplicated for emphasis. Another hypothesis is that it is from the Arabic "bhur-bhari", meaning "sailor's asthma."
In 1630, a Dutch physician named Jacob Bonitus encountered the disease while working in Java. In the first known description of beriberi, he wrote, "A certain very troublesome affliction, which attacks men, is called by the inhabitants beriberi (which means sheep). I believe those, whom this same disease attacks, with their knees shaking and the legs raised up, walk like sheep. It is a kind of paralysis, or rather tremor: for it penetrates the motion and sensation of the hands and feet indeed sometimes of the whole body."
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