The Hattiesburg news., 1915-11-02
DISEASE SQUAD
GETS PARDONS
Confined from Page one.)

five years has caused the medical pro
fesson to stand aghast, with no rem
edy to offer.
Like nearly all wonderful discover
les in medical science, the cause and
the cure are so simple as to be almost
ludicous, and the layman wonders
why somebody did not think of it be-
| fore.
Putting it as briefly as possible, DR..
Goldberger has produced proof of the
most conclusive kind that pellagra
is dietary disease, caused by un-
balanced ration, and can be quickly
and permanently cured by feeding the
patient on a well-balanced diet; that
it is form of under-nourishment or
starvation, somewhat analogous to
beri-beri or scurvy, and ordinary cases
of the disease can be cured by getting
away from the one-sided diet, and
fusing such articles of food as milk,
eggs, lean meat, peas, beans, etc.
DR.. Goldberger's theory has been
known to the medical world for sew
eral months, but it was not until the
conclusion OF his experiment with
eleven convicts ct the Rankin state
farm yesterday that positive proof in
its support could be given.
These eleven convicts, who volun-
| teered for the experiment, covering a
period of more than six months, on
TGovernor Brewers promise to grant
them pardons at the conclusion of DR..
Goldberger's work, have been restored
to libety. Six of the number have pei
lagra in positive form, two have devel-
oped the early symptoms, and it is
more than likely that the remaining
three also have the disease, but the
skin LESSONS have not yet appeared.
It was dramatic and terrifying or
deal through which the eleven con-
victs, a majority of them lifetermers,
passed. Day after day they saw them
selves and each other growing paler
and more emaciated. Each week
brought evidence that the disease was
slowly developing, and several of the
number wrote piteous letters to Gov.
Brewer urging him to release them
from the voluntary pledge they had
made, and allow them to go back to
the ordinary prison routine and finish
their life terms. =.
'I'd rather serve a thousand years
at hard labor than go on with this
hellish experiment for another week,
Brewer only two weeks ago. This
prisoner fully realized that he was af
flicted with pellagra, as sores had be
Igun to appear on various parts of his
body. But the Governor was obdurate
He felt keen personal sympathy fol
the men who were risking their lives
for humanity's sake, and, incidentally
to secure release from prison, but they
Ehad entered into a contract, and the
success of the experiment depended
absolutely on keeping the squad in
tact.
+ The experiment had been hedget
about with all possible secrecy. DIR
Goldberger, Gov. Brewer, the prison
authorities, and the state health board
officials, all realized that if it became
publicly known that eleven convicti
were being given diet for the DELHI
crate purpose of producing pellagra
the denunciations so common whel
, men of science are making expert
ments with human beings would b.
, forthcoming, and probably relative
j., and friends of the convicts would in
, stitute habeas corpus proceedings, o
ftake other legal steps, to secure thei
release from the 'pellagra squad"
And, strange to say, the quarter
in which the eleven convicts were cor
fined were Stunned by other priso
inmates like a leper camp. The il
mates grew morose, stubborn and r.
sentful. Thirty days ago when tn
skin LESSONS began to appear, ugl
sores breaking out on their bodies.
was almost reign of terror anon
the convicts, and the letters Co
Brewer begging for release grew MOI
frequent and insistent.
DR.. Goldberger realized, more tina
thirty days ago, that his theory wa
Ebeing proven. The details of the wor
of supervision was in the hands of b
assistant, DR.. G. A. Wheeler, of II
:. Public Health Service, who remaine
with the convicts day and night
see to it that they were not given ar
food other than the unbalanced ratio
0 sent from the convict kitchen, consis
i fling chiefly of cereals, such as COZ
g meal. grits. molasses, fat meat, Ell