The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-12-10
CAUSE OF pELLAGRA.
Was the Public Health Service Expert
ment Properly Conducted?

To THE EDITOR oF THE SUN-Str: II
has recently been reported that the
Public Health Service has made an
epoch making experiment ending In the
discovery that the cause of pellagra
Is a lack Of protein In the diet. and that
the cure is the addition OF meat. eggs
milk. beans, peas and other proteid
foods to the deficient diet. An institu'
ton of girls is cited In which those
who did the kitchen work and helped
themselves freely to meat, eggs and mill
did not incur the disease. while amone
the other inmates 1t was very preva-
lent. Conviets were fed for five months
ON a "one sided diet Of biscuits. fried
mush, grits, brown gravy. syrup. corr
bread, cabbage. sweet potatoes, rice, col
lards, coffee and sugar. and six out OF
eleven contracted pellagra. The usual
nervous gastro-intestinal and ski
symptoms appeared. Four famous med
zeal men pronounced the disease in thest
cases true pellagra.
There Is no reason to doubt the facts
as reported. but there Is excellent rea'
son for ~pronouncing unjustifable the
Interpretation placed upon them. namely,
that the cause and cure OF pellagra
have been found 10 be related to variety
In diet.
Thirty years Of experimenting upon
myself enables me TO say positively that
the articles allowed the prisoners form
an excellent diet IL -four of them are
eliminated. / refer to brown gravy
syrup. coffee and sugar, which are no,
foods and are detrimental to health. But
1t will be conceded that these -four items
are not bad enough to cause an other
wise good diet to develop pellagra. The
remaining eight articles. biscuits, mush
grits. corn. cabbage. sweet potatoes
rice and collards. are excellent foods
Taken separately. any one OF them will
support life indefinitely. There Is nc
~gainsaying this, for such exclusive diets
ave been adhered TO at least as long
as the Public Health Services expert.
ment on the convicts. and such expert
ments have been kept up for years
with no injury to health, but rather q
constant improvement.
Then there Is something wrong in the
conclusion reached by the experts. II
cannot be true that an insufflciently di.
versifed diet caused pellagra in the siN
subjects. So the question arises, wha'
was 1t that caused the damage TO the
convlcts' health?
Thu answer is not far to seek. The
report reads that the components of the
dietary were properly cooked" Here
is the clue TO the dire effects upon these
Niitpl Nu'iatS ioI'its too"SN u
the minds even of experts, mean cooked
and that is had enough. The collards
rice. sweet potatoes. cabbage, grits and
mush were boiled. The bis, uits and
corn bread were baked. The mush was
fried Pains were taken IL have these
things properly cooked and so I infer
that they were thoroughly cooked. Thus
the life was cooked out Of everything
and the poor men had nothing to livs
on. Lack OF variety had nothing to dc
with their pellagra. Had meat. eggs
milk, beans and peas been added tc
their regimen. but all so properly
cooked" their distress would have beer
just as great.
II the Public Health Service will try
this experiment again and take these
same articles Of food. wheat. maize
rice. cabbage. sweet potatoes and col
lards, and sub-cook them in NJ electric
oven at 100 degrees by n self-registerinG
thermometer. I will guarantee that ths
eleven convicts will all have better health
at the end of Ave months than the other
siSty-four prisoners.
f.. n. B~RISKERHoFr.
FALL RIVER, Mass. December o.