The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-13
New Disease Is Found In Ger :
 tains Parts of Georgia
CAUSED BY EATING CORN
Secretary of Georgia Board of Health Gives His Views Upon the Disease, Which, He Claims, Is Found
 In Several Localities.


 which has caused such ravages in eer- tain provinces of Italy, in Georgia and neighboring states, is attracting the at tentlon and investigations of medical men particularly on account of the appear ance of what seems to be a new or | acute form of it.
 Pellagra assit is known in Italy is not, strictly speaking. a new disease to this ! country. Seven years ago. in 1902, Dr. H. F. Harris. secretary of the Georgia state board of health, pointed out a case of 1t in a clinic at the Atlanta Col lege of Physicians and Surgeons-the first case to which attention was called in this country.
 This was the we'll recognized or chronic form of the disease, and the patient, after examination and treatment, disappeared from view
 But extraordinary attention and inter- est has recently centered upon the dis ease because of the fact that there have been number of deaths in the Atlanta hospitals and in the insane asylums of Georgia and other states from a com plaint which has been generally diagnosed as pellagra Qrom the Spanish, signifying
 
 and believed to come from eating unrlpe or improperly cured Indian corn. These cases, if they are pellagra, as they have been generally pronounced, ap- parenty differ from the well-known form of the disease in only one particular, and that is the rapidity with which death ensues-in from one to six weeks fol- lowing the appearance of the symptoms The patient afflicted with the chronic form of pellagra may live anywhere from two or three to 25 years before death comes as the result of the infection And yet this disease and that more recently noted in Georgia which produces speedy death. are, apparently identical in symp- toms.
 pr. Harris investigations.
 ''I am not wholly prepared to say that these cases which appear to be the acute form of the disease, are genuine pella- gra,' said Dr. Harris, who. in connection with the state board of health, Is mak- ing an exhaustive study of the sub- ject.
 They certainly have every appearance of it and may be acute pellagra I have come across something like a hundred
 
 ence in the last two or three years and am now engaged in experiments and in- vestigations with a view to determining the true nature of 1t.
 The symptoms of pellagra in the | chronic form are, first, a rough reddish ness of the skin from which 1t derives | its name, and which is somewhat sim | liar to sunburn. It appears on the hands and later on the cheeks: then it may 1 come on the feet and legs and other tender parts of the body. Then sores appear upon the inner sides of the lips and on the tongue T disease Is &C., companied by diarrhoea, and in genuine | pellagra there are certain we1l-known | changes which occur in the spinal cord l The only effective trea tment Is arsenic I in proper doses and the patient usually | improves in the fall of the year and is worse In the spring ! "In the acute form which we are in- i vestigating the symptoms practically Identical. It has not been definitely de- | termfned however, whether the same | changes occur in the spinal cord and | that is matter we now working on. I have secured several cords from patients who died from the disease at insane asy1ums and Investigating | these Then. too, the acute form does ] not yield to the arsenic treatment. There | is no known effective treatment for it | and death ensues within a few weeks 1 at most
 "On the other hand, I have seen com l Paratively few cases of chronic pella- gra- One patient who has been under the arsenic treatment appears to have l recovered, but whether recovery is com 1 plete not time must develop. The | chronic form, however, appears to be less prevalent here than the acute"
 Causes of Pellagra. Pellagra is still one of the medical mys- ra xrh hinh | in certain cereals when they are harvested l in unripe condition or are improperly cured which cause different diseases. | For example, ergotism comes from eating | rye from which all of the fungus of ergot 1 has not been removed. In this case the connection is definitely established and | the disease and cause are well known. | Then improperly cured wheat gives rise | to a disease known --s acrodynia, while | kazko or beri-beri comes from eating bad | rice.
 So improperly cured corn produces pei | lagra. The condition of the grain, 1t ap- l pears, becomes favorable to the culture of | certain bacillus or germ the product of | which is poison that accumulates in | the system and causes the disease Pellagra and like diseases, Dr. Harris l states, are found, as a rule, among the | poorer classes whose bodies, often insuf- l fioiently nourished, are more susceptible | Some physicians who have investigated | the subject hold that, once the disease has | got a start from eating bad corn, it may ] be aggravated by eating perfectly good l corn or corn meal in which, it IS stated, | there is small percentage of the poison | responsible for it.
 It may occur, however, and has not in- l frequently been found in persons in bet | ter circumstances in life. and very re- | markable fact in connection with 1t Is l that instances have occurred both in the l acute and chronic forms where the patti | ents could not recall having eaten | corn or corn meal at all and sometimes | stated positively they had not done so l It is apparent, therefore, that pellaera | is one of the interesting and important | problems toward solution of which the | medical profession must work
 No Way of Detecting the Poison.
 No way of detecting the poisonous sub- | stance formed in the grain which gives | rise to the disease has yet been discoy- 1 cred, although the connection between 1 the eating of bad corn and the disease | seems to have been established beyond all l question. But there is no known test l which can be applied to a sack of corn l meal. for instance, which will determine l whether or not the eating of 1t will cause | pellagra. In fact where the poison is pres | ent it might cause the disease in one per- | son and not In another who might be | better prepared physically to resist 1t. | With a view to the prevention of the l disease insofar as is possible, the Italian l government in whose domain 1t has been | most prevalent, has issued certain instruc-