The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1912-07-02
PELLAGRA SHOWS
LARGE INCREASE
Georgia State Board Of Health Urges
Law to Keep Out Fad and
improperly Cured
Corn.

Atlanta, Ca, July 10.-(Special)-
why should you pay good money
for and consume bad corn, any more
than you would buy and eat decayed
fish or fruit?" asks the Georgia State
Board of Health in a discussion of
the disease, pellagra and it's produc-
ing cause.
Georgia has had her share and more
of the increased number of cases OF
pellagra, acute and chronic, in recent
years, and the State Board of Health
is giving every possible attention to
the study of the cause and prevention
of this disease which usually termi-
mates fatally
The best scientific opinion of the
world today is agreed that the prop
able cause of pelagra is bad corn
corn which has been Improperly cured,
which has been cut green and in
which Fermentation sets up during
the process of drying out; or Ill
which fermentation may be produced
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after the grain has ripened. Some
poisonous substance is thus produced
IN the grain, which the best medicai
opinion throughout the world is now
contldent, is the producing cause OF
pellagra.
The State Board accepts this the
ory, in the light of all the evidence
and it is apundant-as the correct
one: but whether il be correct or not,
certainly there Is no answer to the
argument presented in the Board S
query, why should anyone buy bad
corn" It is known beyond question
that spoiled cJln VIII k!ll horses and
other animals, and that it's effect
upon the human system must there
fore be delelerious So why Should
anyone buy IL at all, even at reduced
price, and take the dangerous
chances?
In fact why should not the state
itself take a hand and forbid the i'm
portation and sale in Georgia of bad
or improperly cured corn? Such leg.
islative action the State Board OF
Health strongly urges and recon-
mends. The state now seeks to pro-
tect the people in the matter of the
purity Of their food products; but
there is none in which the law should
more carefully scrutinize than corn
which is so widely and generally used
as food product both for man and
beast.
1t is not necessary here to go into
the many theories which have been
adduced as to the cause of pellagra.
With the single exception OF the now
generally accepted belief that pellagla
is caused by eating bad corn, every
one of these theories has been dis
proven or rejected as wholly untena-
tie because Of the TACT that the condl-
tons involved, while they may ap-
pear in one sectlon Wnele pellagra
is prevalent, are wholly Lacking 9TH
ers where the disease is just as bad
or worse.
AS early as 1900 the deleterious
effect of corn or maize products on
the human system was noted. 1t was
found to be a common food product
with those affected with pellagra. The
disease has been found to prevail par
ticularly in those countries in which
the seasons are so short that the
erain does not properly ripen; and
also it has been shown to have made
it's appearance wherever people were
in the habit of eating corn after it
has undergone Preventative changes.
1t is we'll known that corn, when bad,
will quickly kill horses, and numerous
experiments have shown that extracts
made from fermented corn possess
toxic or poisonous properties.
ut is noteworthy says the Board,
chat in the United States pellagra
did not make it's appearance to any
extent until Western corn growers be-
gan the practice of cutting the entire
stalk in a green state and piling them
up together in the fields, there to re-
main exposed to all of the vicissitudes
of the weather until the winter was
far advanced, or even until the sue
ceeding spring, when the demand for
corn came on in the Southern states. =
Here are some facts that are known
regarding pellagra:
"Pellagra occurs in all countries
where corn products are habltually
used as food; it does not occur in
any country where such products are
not habitually used as food; it did not
exist in Europe prior to the introduc-
ton of maize, and did not attract at
tention until this cereal had become
a common article of diet; pellagra has
ceased to exist in certain districts
where other crops have replaced corn
and where it is no longer habitually
used as food; pellagra has probably
always existed in North America as
it has long been known in Mexico,
and the increase Of it in this country
unquestionably followed the introduc-
ton of the Western method of har-
vesting corn in the green state"
Concluding, the Board of Health
says:
sAs there is every reason to be-
lieve that bad corn is the cause Of
pellagra, and no evidence that it is
not, it is our duty to use every legiti-
mate method to prevent its importa
ton into the state and its sale in orr
markets. Even granting that pella-
gra is not produced by fermented
maize, we are surely entitled to good
corn when we pay our money for
it; there can be no possible reason
fer wishing to buy rotton corn.
THE thoroughly ripened and we'll
preserved corn of these ATTITUDES is,
nnquestionably, a good, wholesome
food, and can be eaten in the future
as it has been in the past without i'll
effect; but the State Board of Health
deems that it is but doing its duty
to the people of Georgia in solemnly
tLa,o a0oincf tho evil nnpSA-