The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-03-31
The Treatment and Prevention of
Pellagra.
Continued from last week.
Prophylaxis.

| !
of pellagra will depend essentially
on the substitution of a mixed, we'll
balanced, varied diet for the re-
stricted, one-sided diet that the in
dividual will be found to have con-
sumed prior to the development of
symptoms.
In a very large proportion, pos
sibly as much as one-half, of the
unconstitutional cases in the United
States very little change, if any, in
the diet available to the individual
is called for, the point of chief i'm
portance being to correct the dietary
eccentricity of the affected individ-
ual. As a rule, however, in order,
at least, to increase the margin of
safety" some modification is highly
desirable; some reduction in the
amount of the corn ("flakes", grits,
meal,) or other starchy foods (ce-
reals, syrup, starch) entering the
family diet should be insisted on.
Perhaps the most important
change irl the diet that we would
urge is that which relates to the ami
NAL and leguminous protein compo-
nent. An increased consumption
of fresh Qean) meat, of fresh milk,
of eggs, or of tht legumes (beans
and peas, fresh or dried, but not
canned) and, preferably of all of
these, is considered essential to give
proper balance and to prevent the
"fault" in the diet. The cheapest
and most readily available of these
are the legumes, and the poor, es-
pecially the poor of our South should
| be instructed and urged to include
them in, or materially to increase
the proportion in which they enter
into, their daily diet, especially dur
ing the late fall, winter, and spring
months. There is reason for more
than a suspicion that the introduc-
ton of, or the increase in, the le-
gumes in the daily dietary coinci-
dent with the coming to our tables
of the "fresh vegetables" of summer
: is in part, at least, responsible for
the improvement and recovery of the
cases of pellagra that appear annu-
ally as sort of spring and early
summer crop following a winter or
early spring diet in which these ele-
ments are more or less conspicuous
ly small or altogether absent.
The evidence is daily becoming
stronger that the eventual eradica-
tion of pellagra from our South will
depend largely on the successful in
PRODUCTION of our common dried
legumes into the late winter and
spring dietary. A valuable step in
this direction would be an increase
in the cultivation of some of the
varieties of beans and peas and their
preservation in the dried state for
winter and spring consumption.
What has been said concerning
unconstitutional cases applies to cas-
es at orphanages, except that here
one need concern oneself primarily
but little with individual eccentrici-
ties of taste. At these institutions
modification of the dietary alone
along the lines indicated will, we
believe, be followed by the complete
wiping out of the disease. In this
connection we may say that we have
knowledge of an institution where
this has actually happened. The
occurrence of rs cases of pellagra
at orphange ''B. H." in the spring of
1913, following apparently milder
outbreaks in 1911 and 1912, led
to a modification, along the lines
above mentioned, of the diet of the
affected group of children, the out
break having been strictly limited
to the boys and girls belonging to
one of three groups into which the
inmates were divided. Not a sin
gle case is known to have developed
this year (spring and summer 1910
among a total of some 234 of the
children of this orphanage. We
have reason to believe that this is
not a unique experience,