The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-11-10

AIMS oo' VI t totdl OF Z,loo patients
at the hospital
DR.. Zeller is convinced that pa
tients have been dying of pellagra i'm
this institution for years past, without
the disease ever having been properly
| diagnosed. He admitted that pa
tients had died of the disease before
It's recognition as pellagra in August
last, the death being either attributed
TO sunburn or, as in two cases, the
scalding of the patients while being
given baths,
! With the cooperation of the Illinois
state board of health and the sur
| geons general of the United States ma
rlne hospital service and the army,
thorough research work has been in
stituted at the Peoria hospital and at
other public institutions in the State.
According to reports made by the su-
perintendents of half dozen other
state asylums similar measures have
been taken in those States to com.
pat the disease. And, more impor-
tant perhaps, the United States ma
rine hospital service and the special
pellagra commission appointed by
Surgeon General Wyman are already
at work investigating the disease.
I'm the course Of his remarks DR..
Zeller touched briefly upon the hook
| worm, another disastrous malady but
| recently recognized in the United
| States, and created mild sensation
when he suggested that many thous-
ands of the federal prisoners who died
IN the Confederate stockade at Ander-
sonville, Ca, during the Civil War
were victims of the hookworm, rather
than to the abuses and i'll treatment
which it is alleged they received. And
perhaps, after ALL declared DIR. Eel
Ter, the monument recently erected at
Andersonville to the memory of Capt
Wirz, commandant of that prison, is
not so much out of place as as many
Of us at the North have been wont to
believe
'Pellagra as a National Public
Health Problem was the subject of a
valuable address delivered by Assist
tant Surgeon General Kerr of the Uni
ted States public health and marine
hospital service, who declared that
the occurrence Of the disease in this
country involves problems that will
require the most earnest investiga-
ton with the view to their solution.
THE problem of pellagra in Eu-
rope and in the New World is in some
respects analogous to beri beri in the
Orient said DR.. Kerr. Both diseases
are held to be associated with the con-
sumption of important articles of diet.
both are capable of becoming verit-
able scourges among the people Of the
countries where they become endemic,
and in neither disease has the etiology
been definitely determined. This ana
logy might also be extended to include
communicability, and in some respect
symptomatology and treatment of the
disease. In neither disease is there
evidence that communicating plays
part In their continued prevalence,
and In neither has it been deemed ad-
visable or necessary by the national
government to institute quarantine
procedures"
DR.. c. H. Lavinder, u. S. p. M. and
M. s., Dr., j. w. Babcock, superinten-
dent Of the South Carolina hospital
for the insane, and DR.. c. F. Williams,
State health officer of South Carolina.
as well as prominent physicians from
Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee nli-
nois, North Carolina and other States
gave to the conference the benefit of
their experience in the treatment of
pellagra.
An interesting feature of the con-
ference was the presentation of sew
eral patierIs with well-deyeloped
cases of the disease.
smoker was rendered the visiting
physicians last night at Ridgewood
Club. Five papers by eminent physi- |
clans in Yucatan, Jamaica, Barbados
West Indies; Paris and Cairo. Egypt. |
were read. DR.. Babcock concluding
with an appreciation of Cesare Lom- !
broso, the noted Italian scientist, who |
devoted more than 80 years to the !
study of pellagra in Italy, Roumania |
and other countries.
The conference will continue in
session today. Peoria, ILL.,, and Co.
lumbia will ask for the next meeting.
Today permanent national pellagra
association will be formed