 He introduced severe restrictions on the supply of water.By keeping the camp meticulously clean, the prisoners were able to overcome the typhus epidemic, but they suffered from the poor quality of the food, which included "Lathyrus sativus", a species of pea that was normally used to feed livestock, and barley bread that had a 20% straw content.A team of doctors among the inmates, led by Dr. Arthur Kessler of Cernăuţi, reached the conclusion that the disease presented all the symptoms of lathyrism, a spastic paralysis caused by the oxalyldiaminopropionic acid present in the pea fodder.