In the preceding chapter it was described how Schaumann, who was the first to extend the suggestive studies of Eijkman, attempted to identify the substance in rice polish -ings, which effects a cure of polyneuritis or experimental beriberi in pigeons. He observed that polished rice has a much lower phosphorus content than unpolished, and that the polish-ings which are extremely rich in this element are highly effective in preventing or curing the disease. These facts led him to suggest that the substance under investigation was of the nature of a nucleic acid. Nucleic acid is a substance occurring in the nuclei of all cells of animal and vegetable origin. It is an organic complex composed of four organic bases, four molecules of sugar and four molecules of phosphoric acid. This view he later abandoned when he was able, in 1912, to isolate from rice bran a phosphorus-free substance which would save from death, pigeons suffering from polyneuritis. He suggested that it functioned in a manner analogous to an enzyme, and since it was closely associated with the areas in the rice kernel in which phosphorus is abundant, he believed that it had some relation to the deposition of phosphorus.