Eijkman, Christiaan

(born Aug. 11, 1858, Nijkerk, Neth.—died Nov.

5, 1930, Utrecht) Dutch physician and pathologist. While seeking a bacterial cause for beriberi, he noticed a resemblance between a nerve disorder in his laboratory chickens and that seen in beriberi. He eventually showed that the cause was their diet of white rather than brown rice, but he believed the disorder was caused by a toxin even after it was shown to be due to thiamin deficiency. His work led to the discovery of vitamins and earned him a 1929 Nobel Prize, shared with Frederick Gowland Hopkins.