Connecticut western news., 1911-09-21
6 SCOURGF OF
 ALARMS THE
More Than 5O,OOO Gases Re- ported Since Disease
 First Appeared.

"HE increasing prevalence of pei lagra in different sections of
 the country is responsible for
 the editorial assertion iIs the Journal of the American Medical ASSo- citation that ''it becomes one of the most important public health problems of the present, if not the most impor- tant problem, and as such adequate provision should be made for its thor ough investigation by federal and state health authorities
 Coincident with the expression of this serious view of the situation comes the announcement from Lexing- 1 ton, Ky, that Henry Garman, a gov ernment bacteriologist and entomolo- gist, believes the buffalo gnat to be l responsible for the disease. Just how the insect communicates the disease has not yet been explained, but MT 1 Garman thinks he is on the right rack and hopes that his Investigations will lead to the discovery of a cure for it.
 From Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina and Georgia" 1 writes the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, ''come reports of increasingly numbers of cases, some of them in localities where athe disease had not previously been detected. These reports in all 1 probability mark the annual recru- descence of the disease and indicate that 1t is increasing from year to oA I-, rate that demands serious consid- eration.
 "The evident increase in the number of cases, the high mortality attending the disease. and the lack of knowl- edge regarding its etiology and proven tion, have created some feeling of alarm among the people of infected ! localities lest the disease might become widely epidemic,
 Reliable Data Scarce.
 "Judging from the experience of It ally, such an event is not impossible, since in that country the disease, soon after It's appearance, became wide spread and was attended by a high rate of mortality.
 Accurate data regarding the preva- 1 Ience of the disease in this country would at the present time be of the | greatest value, but unfortunately these are not available since in only four states is pellagra required to be re- ported and in only one of these are such reports required by law.
 Were these data available for the period since pellagra was first report ed in the United States it is probable that some idea would be gained as to the extension of the disease and some 1 light might also be thrown on the eti- ofogy and other phases of the problem.
 "No appreciable advances hayes been made in our knowledge of etiology and prevention in the recent past. The maize theory of the origin of the dis ease appears to be attracting less at .tention on the part of students of the disease. Sambon's hypothesis regard ing the agency of flies of the genus simulium appears as yet to have few supporters in this country, although Roberts of Atlanta in a recent paper states that from observations made in his section conditions are very similar there to those described by Sambon in Italy where the disease prevails.
 "Alessandrini of Rome, on the other hand, attributes pellagra to a wator borne trematude of the genus filaria.
 Neither of these interesting views as to the parasitic origin of the dis ease has been confirmed. In fact, def nite knowledge regarding the etiology of pellagra is utterly lacking, and the problem is one therefore that calls for urgent study and early solution.
 Probably Not Contagious.