Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-05-28

issues, which are rapidly reduced in vol
"ume. The pulse becomes continually
more and more rapid, thready, and
" evanescent. The temperature declines,
" the nails grow into the flesh, all the
movements of the body are slow and
"languid the sensibility is notably di-
" minished, sometimes to such degree as
g to allow of the introduction of a needle
without its being perceived by the pa
silent. Finally the patient, dried up,
"hard to the touch, inert, apathetic,
" motionless, insentient, with sunken
"eyes and deadened look, becomes mere
mummy unconsciously awaiting the
opening of his grave.
Sometimes this dreadful disease is rapid,
sometimes it is slow. But in either case
it is fatal, and it has become so widespread
that society is disturbed in all its arrange
ments, the race is degenerating, and it is
evident that unless remedies are applied
soon large districts in Italy will be depop-
ulated, and revert to wilderness. The
italian physicians have long been endeav-
oring to explain the pellagrc Some attrib-
ute it to the excessive use of maize for
food. As, however, it occurs in regions
where maize IS not used at all, this theory
is clearly not the right one. But if the
statements in the Edinburgh are correct,
it is not necessary to go into climatic and
other considerations, for it is plain enough
that the peRagTa is the direct result of
such systematic defiance of hygienic laws
as might well bring any plague upon NOR
tails. The people who are subject to the
disease are probably the most wretched
peasants on the face of the earth. They
earn about 30 cents a day. They work
fourteen to sixteen hours day. Their
labor is excessively fatiguing Their food
is miserable, unwholesome, inadequate be-
yond conception. They have no wine or
other stimulants They inhabit abodes
whose filth and foetor shock every sense.
They are in truth below the wild beasts in
their mode of life. The Southern slaves
were Tapped in luxury when compared with
these Italian peasants. They are in fact
the predestined victims of disease, and the
wasting horror called pellagra is quite such
: i c,,1
to invite.
The pella9ya proceeds from starvation
filth, excessive work. It's victims are
worn out by constant heavy labor under a
fierce sun all day. They retire at night to
malarious huts filled with pestilential ex-
halations. They recruit their exhausted
energies by eating sloppy vegetable masses,
or putrefying, half baked maize bread, SO
sour and revolving that the very pigs reject
it. This is washed down by draughts of
swamp water, and then fellows sleep
upon foul straw. 1t is not to be wondered
at that petlagra finds its way into such
habitations, but what is to be thought of
the Government. that permits such horrors
to exist in its midst. These miserable
peasants cannot help themselves. They
are altogether besotted and embruted
by their condition. Such lives as they
lead would extinguish the intellect of a
Newton. They cannot think, or feel, or
raise themselves in any way, and as con.
sequence their condition grows worse con-
tinually. They are not drupkards. They
cannot afford to drink. They are too
poor to be vicious. They are only
brutes, and yet they are Italians.
The Government ought not to waste
further time in inquiry whence
the peitagra comes. There is only too
much cause for It's presence. 1t is the
hideous disease engendered by hideous
and brutalizing mode of life, and it is the
first duty of the Government to lift its PEG
pie out of that terrible condition. The
fact that the dwellers in cities never have
pellGgra !; that the well nourished and well
TODD never have it; that even the peas
antry who are in a position to procure
wine or brandy never have it; shows that
it is disease of bad nutrition, and that
the simple and certain cure for it is to feed
the people sufficiently. If this is not done
it is evident that the pellagra will in no
long time settle the question for itself by
putting an end to all that portion of the
Italian people who live in the manner de-
scribed. Nature will not tolerate sys-
tematic violations of her laws, and no
matter who is responsible for these viola
tons. she visits the penalty upon those
who break her ordinances.