The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1915-06-24
CORRESPONDENCE
Something About Peilagra.

Editor Banner: notice in last weeks
issue of your paper an article on pellagra
that interests me very much. The arti-
Gle having been closed with the state
ment that the people should be instructed
as to how to prevent the spread of this
disease.
Unfortunately no one knows how to
do this. Pellagra is classed by some
writer's as skin disease, by others
digestive, and by some others central
nervous lesion.
The United States Public Health Ser
vice appointed commission to investi-
gate the cause of this disease, and, after
a long study of it, the commission re-
ported that it was likely caused by i'm
proper diet, and in no way contagious.
The Goldberger-Saranat experiment
showed it to be of dietary origin and
treated all cases by regulating the diet
only. The McFadden- Thompson Pei
lagra Commission find cases which seem
to have a central focus for their origin
but do not claim to find that it can be
transmitted from patient to patient.
Also, there have been many individual
workers along this line throughout the
Carolinas, Alabama and Georgia and
other places during the past ten years,
and yet no one has been able to offer
proof positive of the cause.
Some writer's think that damaged corn
products are the cause, others that eat
ing one line of diet exclusively, that is,
the elements needed to maintain the
economy are not properly balanced.
Others claim that it is spread by flies,
fleas, bed bugs, etc., in fact, most all
the lower kingdom have been accused
by some.
The fact that it is a seasonable dis
ease, recurring every spring and fall,
makes it rather hard to blame the diet
altogether. Yet no amount of theoriz-
ing gets away from it. Men who are
competent and have had every chance
to study the disease are yet in doubt.
The treatment of the disease tends to
warrant the claim that it is of digestive
origin. There have been as many
medicines for treatment as theories for
cause, and most cases improve when the
diet is properly balanced regardless of
what plan in treatment is followed,
makes it seem, to me, most likely some-
thing is wrong in the diet. The United
States Public Health Service says diet.
Goldberger's experiments say diet. If
people who are sick get we'll when prop
erly dieted it seems to me that they very
likely would not have been sick il the
diet had been what they needed. Quar-
antine regulations and the most fancy
resolutions will not supply this.
Do not get the idea that it is only the
negroes who have this disease. 1t is in
some homes where there is plenty Of
everything to eat, houses screened and
everything about the house kept decent.
The very diversity of opinion among
those who have right to know leaves
every student of the subject in doubt.
Until the cause can be proven we can
do very little in a preventive way.
Judging from the information we are
able to obtain to-day, l would say that
it is best to get away from so much
corn bread and many canned eatables
and to eat plenty Of eggs, milk, fresh
meats, beans, peas, etc., with more flour
bread. After having supplied the diet,
should one have any spare time it will
be best to spend it in chasing away the
flies, mosquitoes and bugs, on general
principles. T. N. KEoUN.
Plain Dealing, La, June Is, 1915.