The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-09-15
AWFUL DISEASE
PeIlagra is Spreading Rapidly Through
the South and West.
MENACE TO AMERICA

Plague That Has Invaded the
United States and Which is Caus-
ed by Eating Corn.
Appearance in the United States OF
that mysterious disease, pellagra'
practically a and hitherto IN
familiar kind of leprosy, and which,
though introduced but recently, is
Spreading with great %rapidity, may
we'll excite alarm, says Rene Bache
in the New York American. 1t Is
a disease, among the most frightful
known to mankind-which already
claims about one million victims,
now surviving, in the Old World.
Over there it pursues, In nearly
all instances, a slow course, Killing
the sufferers very gradually. But
in this country it becomes unique
and is often a swift destroyer, the
symptoms being '~'telescoped,' as n
might say, so that the whole course
of the malady may he run within a
few weeks, terminating in death.
To call it a new brand of lepro-
sy" is by no means inappropriate.
But, in truth, it is WOrse-much
worse. Not only does it transform
the skin Of the body in to a yellow
and parchment-like covering, crack
ed and beset with foul and u%lcerous
sores, but it directly assails the tenn
pie of the mind, reducing the patient
to a condition of insanity or idiocy.
Until recently the disease. it's
name compounded from two Italian
words, "pelle," skin, and "agra,'
rough--has been regarded as pc
culiar to the Old World though
a few sporadic cases of it have ap-
peared from time to time in Mexico
and South America. Suddenly and
Unexpectedly it invaded the United
States-the first sickness of the
kind being reported only a few years
ago in Georgia. Now quite as sud
denly it has spread throughout most
of the Southern States and, worse
STILL. because of the difference in
climate, it has attacked the Middle
West.
Fifty cases have been found at
the Peoria, Illinois, State Hospital
alone, and Captain Joseph F. Siler,
Of the Army Medical Corps, sent
there to investigate, has reported
to the government that he believes
the malady has long prevailed, not
only around Peoria, but throughout
illinois and the great corn growing
States Of the West.
For it is in corn that the cause
of the disease, whatever it may be-,
turks.
The malady is neither contagious
nor infectious. That is to say, one
person cannot catch it" or take
it" from another. Each individual!
case originates from the moldy corn
direct. In all likelihood, the mis-
chief-making fungus starts it's work
in the cornfeld, where it's spones fall
upon the ripening ears and grow.
But even this is not a certainty.
1t may be asked, why does not
cooking kill the fungus germs? So
in all likelihood it does. But the
poison manufactured by the fungus
is what makes the trouble, and ap-
parently this is not deprived of its
toxic efficiency by high temperatures.
That boiling does not render it harm
less is shown by the fact, already
mentioned, that alcohol distilled
from spoiled maize will cause the
disease.
The spores of the fungus start
colonies in the intestine, and the
poison they produce is taken up by
blood and thus carried to all parts
of the body. 1t is in effect a drug,
particularly injurious to the brain
and nervous system generally
whence the profound effect of the
disease upon the mentality. This eff
feet, like the purely physical symp-
toms. is progressive, and frequently
terminates in idiocy or insanity.
When it is said that the disease
Is due to something in moldy or
musty corn nearly all has been said
that is really known of the cause.
1t is true that at the Meridian
Hospital, in Mississippi, a new and
unknown BACILLUS has been isola-
ted after Investigation into a num-
Der of cases of the disease, but
whether this is the real microbe of
pellagra, whether there Is a mic
robe or whether the malady is due
to some vegetable growth that en-
tiers the blood through the corn, is
not actually known.
Nor is it likely that an effective
remedy will be found until the cause
is definitely ascertained. The Italian
theory, and the one commonly &C.
is that it is caused by "a
fungus parasitic on maize or by a
ptomaine developed by its putrifac-
Fungus and ptomaine remain
to be discovered.
Nobody that has ever handled
corn can have failed to notice that
occasional ears are moldy. Perhaps
only a few of the grains are affected.
and, as a matter of fact, these are
removed in process of preparation