Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1909-11-16
DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY or PELLAGRA
Victims Somewhat Like Leprosy but Peel
off In Fall, First Discovered In Spain.

Victims Somewhat Like Leprosy but PEI
off In Fall. First Discovered In Spain,
! Owing to the great intres
being taken in the assertion
that pellagra is now rampan
throught America and tn
continued diagnosis by man,
physicians of numerous case
Of the disease in our midst
we copy the following-rathe
extended but interesting de
scription and history OF thu
disease from the Encyclope
dia Britannica, Vol. XVIII:
"Pellagra (ltal. pelle agra
smarting skim is the name
given, from one of it's symp.
toms, to a peculiar disease, o1
comparatively modern origin
occurring among the peasants
ry in Lombardy and Other
provinces of northern Italy,
and in the Asturlas (nlal de
la rosa), Gascony, Roumania,
and Corfu. 1t is a progress
sive disease Of nutrition tend.
ing towards profound paraly>
tic and mental disorders, and
is associated to a veiy signifi~
cant extent, if not even ivari~
ably, with a staple diet of
damaged maize along with
other peculiarly wretched
and hopeless conditions of
living. Although Lombardy
is the garden of Italy, its
peasantry are over~worked :,
under~paid, and under~fed; :;
instead of a diet suited to
their severe labour, their
consists largely of
the more worthless kinds Of
Indian corn of their own
growing, the produce of poor>
ly cultivated ground, sown
late, harvested before matur>
ity, and stored carlessly i'll it's
wet state: even if they grow
a certain proportion Of good
the iniilers, to
whom they are often in debt,
are more likely to grind the
worst samples for the pea~
sents' own use. The -four is
eithernade into a kind of por-
ridge-the 'polonta" Of lAy,
the ''cruchade" of Gascony, or
the ''mamaliga' of Roumania
Or it is made into loaves,
without yeast, baked hastily
on the surface'only or on one
side, and raw ard wet within,
large enough to last a week,
and apt to turn sour and
mouldy before the week is
out.*
That pellagra is not amor~
bus miseri4 pure and simple,
wanting some more specific
cause, will be at once appa-
rent when we consider that
the misery of living is as old
as the human race, whereas
pellagra is a disease Of the
last hundred years or so, and
shat in Ireland, Russia, Up
per Silesia, Galicia, Or other
headquarters of the morbi
miserin, pellagra is unknown.
The special factor is undoubt>
edly maize as an article Of
diet or as the staple diet; but
it is, on the other hand, per-
fectly clear that there is
nothing i'll a maize diet itself
to induce pellagra. Compare
ed with the enormous extent
of the maize~zone both in the
western and eastern hemis~
pheres, the pellagra-area is a
mere spot on the map; exclud~
ing Corfu, it lies between the
parallels of 46 and ~ N; and
the exception of Corfu is a
significant one. It is only
since 1856 that pellagra has
become endemic in that is
land. Maize has always thri-
ven we'll there; but wine
growing has displaced it to
great extent, and the maize.
which is still largely in re-
quest with the peasantry, is
now mostly imported; it is in
fact chiefly Roumanian maize
Of an inferior kind, and all the
more deteriorated owing t(
it's long water~transit by way
of the Danube and Black Sea
Again in the Danubian pro
vinces themselves the peasan'
try of Pennsylvania, who ar,
by no means we'll off, are fre'
from pellagra, notwithstand
ing their addiction TO polenta
having long ago learned th'
art Of husbandry from th,
Saxon part of the population
they allow the maize to ripper
to the utmost, and then lie