The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-09-18
PELLAGRA DISEASE
SAID TO BE CAUSED BY THE USE
=. OF WESTERN GROWN CORN

It is Claimed That This Corn Has
Not Time to Mature Well Before
it is Ground.
The dread new disease which first
made it's appearance in the South
several years ago, has invaded sew
eral parts Of the North. Fifty cas-
es are now under treatment in Pc
! oria, III. 1t has probably existed
undetected in the North many years.
Dr.. Lavindar of the United States
marine hospital service, has proved
that pellagra caused the death of
| two patients who were supposed to
have been scaided to death in the
Bartonville, Illinois, insane asylum
in 1904 and 1907.
They died in bath tubs and their
bodies looked like they had been
boiled and the r"rse who was in
| charge of the last Ase was dismissed
for supposed criminal carelessness.
DR.. Lavindar says the appearance of
being boiled alive is typical of the
disease of pellagra and that death
| in the bath tubs was mere conci-
dence. The result is that the nurse
has been reinstated. DR.. Lavindar
found forty cases in this asylum on
his arrival there.
The Knoxville Sentinel, referring
to the theory that musty corn causes
pellagra, expressed the belief some
time ago that the spread of the dis
ease was due to the use of care
lessly selected corn ground by steam
rolling mills instead of the coarse
ground corn meal Of water mills of
the South. The view has been grow
ing in strength. Dr.. William T.
Woodley, of Charlotte, N. c., has
written The Observer on this SUBJ
ject. He blames the use Of shock
| cured corn which, he says, is not
given time enough to dry thorough
ly before it is husked and market
ed. He says that sixty days longer
should be allowed to corn in the
shock than to corn standing in the
field.
The season in the West is much
shorter than in the South and the
farmers push their work so as to
get through with cleaning their
fields before winter. DR.. Woodley
proposes, therefore, that mills be
required to use only corn that has
been. cured under supervision. Corn
for the table should be cured with
out stripping the fodder in order to
give the ears all the nutriment pos
sible. The amount of corn ground
for human food is small compared
with the total grown and it would
be NO great hardship to require the
mills Ito "be careful in selecting It.
In. commenting on the rapid
| spread of. the disease. the Farmers
Union Sun says shere in the South,
whose people have always been ad-
dicted to- the use Of Corn bread in
some form or other, pellagra was
unknown until comparatively recent
| years. Before the war and long
| afterwards, we never knew or heard
of case that indicated any of the
symptoms of pellagra. 1t is as now
known and described a very modern
| disease so far as it relates to the
South, and it's present prevalence, If
due, to. the use of corn, may be at
tributed wholly to the South's aban-
donment Of the cultivation of corn,
turning its attention to the single
crop of cotton, and depending ex-
| clusively for its corn supply on the
West, where the methods of har-
vesting and caring for corn crops
are such as to make corn an unfit
article Of food for man.
We read the other day that it is
not an unusual thing for some
Western farmers to turn their hogs
into fields of corn which was regard
ed as of inferior quality. We are
confident that much of this kind of
corn or the meal from it is ship
ped to the South and made into
| bread and eaten by the poorer class
of our people among whome, espec-
tally those in mill districts, pellagra
has appeared. We don't believe that
Southern raised corn, harvested only
when fully ripe, as was done in ante
bellum times, and properly ground
into meal, will produce pellagra.
If the disease is caused from corn,
it is this Western corn and its pro-
ducts on which our people have been
, feeding ever since they got the cot
ton craze. Pellagra, then. which is
said to be spreading rapidly through
out the South, is going to compel
our people to 90 back to first princi-
pies, in other words, force them to
cut out Western corn and raise their
corn supply at home. 1t seems that
something just like this was requir-
ed to bring Southern farmers to their
senses. Some people can be con-
! vinced only by knock-down argu-