Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1915-11-19
Public Health Service Discovers
Cause And Cure OF Pellagra.

Announcement was made at the Trea
ury Department, Washington. last Frida
that as a result of continued research an
experiments of the Public Health Servic
both the cause and the cure of pellagr
have been discovered, and that the sprea
of this dread malady, which has been In
creasing in the United States at terrifi
rate during the past few years, may nov
be checked and eventually eradicatet
Assistant Secretary Newton, in charge @
the Public Health Service, expressed grea
interest in the discovery and regards it a
one of the most important achievement
of medical science in recent years.
Pellagra has been increasing alarmingl!
throughout the United States during tn,
last eight years, and it is estimated tina
$4,000 cases of the disease will have oc
Cured in the United States in 1915, ant
of this number at least $500 will have
died before the end of the year. In man!
sections only tuberculosis and pneumonia
exceed it as cause of death.
The final experimenting experiment Of
the Public Health Service was carried out
at the farm of the Mississippi State peni-
Tertiary, about eight miles east of Jack
son, Miss and together with the previous
work of the Service completes the chain
in the prevention and cure of the disease
The work at the Mississippi farm has been
in charge of Surgeon Joseph Goldberger
and Assistant Surgeon G. A. Wheeler, of
the United States Public Health Service.
The farm consists of 5000 acres. in the
center of which is the convict camp. The
final experiment was undertaken for the
purpose of testing the possibility of pro-
ducing pellagra in healthy human white
adult males by restricted. one-sided
mainly carbohydrate (cereaD diet. OF
eleven convicts who volunteered for this
experiment, six developed typical derma-
tits and mild nervous gastro-intestinal
symptoms.
Experts, including DIR. E. H. Galloway,
the Secretary of the Mississippi State
Board of Health, DR.. Nolan Stewart. form
erly Superintendent of the Mississippi
State Hospital for the Insane at Jackson
DIR. Marcus Hause, Professor of Derma-
tology Medical College of the University
of Tennessee, Memphis, Tenn. and DR..
Martin r. Engman, Professor of Derma-
tOlogy in the Washington Medical School
st. Louis, declare that the disease which
was produced was true pellagra.
Prior to the commencement of these ex-
periments no history could be found of
the occurrence of pellagra on the peniten-
tiary farm. On this farm there are rs or
80 convicts. Governor Earl Brewer offered
to pardon twelve of the convicts who would
volunteer for the experiment. They were
assured that they would receive proper
care throughout the experiment. and treat
ment should 1t be necessary. The diet
given was bountiful and more than suffi-
cient to sustain life. 1t differed from that
given the other convicts merely in the
absence of meats, milk, eggs, beans, peas
and similar proteid foods. In every other
particular the convicts selected for the
experiment we're treated exactly as were
the remaining convicts. They had the
same routine work and discipline, the same
periods of recreation and the same water
to drink Their quarters were better than
those of the other convicts. The diet given
them consisted of biscuits, fried mush
grits and brown gravy, syrup, corn bread,
cabbage, sweet potatoes rice, collards and
coffee with sugar. All components of the
dietary were of the best quality and were
properly cooked AS a preliminary, and
to determine If the convicts were afflicted
with any other disease they were kept
under observation from February 4th to
April 9th. two and a half months, on which
date the sided diet was begun.
Although the occurrence of nervous
symptoms and gastro-intestinal disturb
ances was noted early, it was not until
September 18th. or about five months after
the beginning of the restricted diet, that the
skin symptoms so characteristic of pellagra
began to develop. These symptoms are
considered as typical, every precaution
being taken to make sure that they were
not caused by any other disease. The
convicts upon whom the experiment was
being made, as well as twenty other con-
victs who were selected as controls, were
kept under continuous medical surveil-
lance. No cases of pellagra developed in
camp excepting among those men who
we're on the restricted diet. The expert
mentors have therefore drawn the conclu-
sion that pellagra has been caused in at
least six of the eleven volunteers as a re-
suit of the one-sided diet on which they
subsisted.
On the basis of this discovery, the States
Of Mississippi. Louisiana and Florida have
laid their propaganda through their re-
spective boards of health for the eradica-
ton of the disease.