Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-09-12
Recognized but Recently

fatal.
 Recognized but Recently Pellagra was not recognized in the United States until within the last de cade, and even as late as 1907 medical authorities held that it did not exist in the United States.
 In southern Europe and especially in Italy, this disease is widely spread and the Italian government has been at great pains to combat it. The disease has a hold in Roumania, is found in Spain and France, is extensive in upper Egypt and has been reported from Asia Minor, Austria, Servia, Bulgaria and some other parts of southern Europe, as we'll as occasionally from India, Af- rica and Barbadoes, South America, and in the last few years in the southern states in this contry, and latterly in middle western and northern states.
 A peculiarly of pellagra is that it is not communicable from one person to another. No known remedy has been found to stay it's ravages, and there has been found no specific organism.
 The existence of the disease has been known since lT35, in Spain; and l750 il first appeared in Italy. It takes its meme from the Italian words "pelle, v the skin and "agra," rough As ear. ly as l7S4 pellagra had assumed so much importance in Italy that hospit- al was established by royal authority for the study of it's nature.
 The Supposed Cause
 As to the etiology of the disease comparatively little is known. There are a number of theories relating to its cause, each having an aparent basis of facts upon which its theory is built, but the prevailing consensus is that pei. lagra has it's origin in the consumption of mouldy maize, commonly known nowadays as corn. The disease gener. ally occurs among the poorer classes of the rural population who subsist largely or exclusively on maize, most usually prepared by boiling corn meal in altwater-called "polenta in It. ally.
 Observation has shown that in conn tries where pellagra exists the corn is often of poor quality, gathered before maturity and not properly cured and stored, so that parasites develop upon it.
 The relation between Indian corn, otherwise maize, and pellagra was noted early in the 10th century, and it is a coincidence worthy of note that the disease, which proves veritable scourge where 1t becomes prevalent, seems tO have followed close upon the Sntroduction of maize culture from America, first in Spain in HOO and later in other parts of Europe Just why the disease was so late in develop ing in America, the original home of maize culture, does not seem to be sat isfaetorialy explained.
 The cultivation of maize in the Unit ed States has been practiced since be- fore the discovery of America, and 1t has been a staple article of diet over a large area of territory, yet with the exception of a few cases in Mexico and Central America, the North American continent has been siugularly free from the disease. This has been attrb. uted by writers on pellagra to eli mate well adapted to growing maize, and probably to better hygienic condi- tions among the poorer rural classes
 As before stated, the disease is not communicable, and it is not heriditary. but the children of generations of pei lagrns are feeble in resistance and of lowered physical vitality.