Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-23

Foreign representatives: Cone, Lor
enzen & Woodman, Mallers BuiiaiiS =
Chicago; 225 Fifth Ave, New 4orf
City: Gumbel Bldg, Kansas City. MO-
PELLAGRA CAUSE FOUND.
Announcement has been made tina
as a result of continued research anc
experiments of the public health serv
ice, both the cause and the cure OF
pelIagra have been discovered, and
that the spread of this dread malady
which has been Increasing in the Uni.
ted States at terrific rate during the
past few years, may now be checked
and eventually eradicated. Assistant
Secretary Newton, In charge of the
public health service, expressed great
Interest In the discovery and regards
it as one of the most important
achievements of medical science In re-
cent years.
Pellagra has been increasing alarm
ingly throughout the United States
during the last eight years, and it Is
estimated that $4,000 cases of the dis
ease will have occurred in the United
States in 1915, and of this number at
least $500 will have died before the
end of the year. In many sections
only tuberculosis and pneumonia ex-
coed it as cause of death.
.rne final epoch-making experiment
of the public health service was car
ried out at the farm of the Mississippi
state penitentiary about eight miles
! east of Jackson, 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 serv-
ice. The farm consists of 5000 acres
in the center Of which is the convict
camp. The final experiment was un-
dertaken for the purpose of testing the
possibility of producing pellagra IN
healthy human white adult males by
a restricted, one-sided, mainly carbo-
hydrate (cereal) diet. OF eleven con-
yicts who volunteered for this expert
ment six developed a typical dermati-
It's and mild nervous gastro-intestinal
symptoms.
Experts, including DR.. E. H. Gallo
way. the secretary of the Mississippi
state board Of health, DR.. Nolan Stew
art, formerly superintendent OF the
Mississippi state hospital for the in
sane at Jackson, DR.. Marcus Hause,
professor of dermatology, medical col
lege of the University of Tennessee,
Memphis, Tenn, and DR.. Martin II.
Ensman, professor of dermatology in
the Washington medical school, st.
Louis. Mo-, declare that the disease
which was produced was true pellagra.
Prior to the commencement OF these
experiments no history could be found
Of the occurrence of pellagra on the
penitentiary farm. On this farm are
seyenty-five to eighty convicts. Gov.
Earl Brewer offered to pardon twelve
of the convicts who would volunteer
for the experiment. They were as
sured that they would receive proper
care throughout the experiment, and
treatment should it be necessary. The
diet given was bountiful and more
than sufficient to sustain life. II oil
fered from that given the other con-
victs merely in the absence OF meats,
milk. eggs, beans, peas, and similar
proteid foods. In every other partlcu-
lar the convicts selected for the ex-
pertinent were treated exactly as
wer, the remaining convicts. they
had the same routine work and DIS
cipline. the same periods of recreation
and the same water to drink. Thelr
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 COM
pom nts of the dietary were of the
best quality and were properly cooked.
AZ a preliminary, and to determine II
the convicts were afflicted with any
other disease, they were kept under
observation from February Alto April
g. two and half months, on which
date the one-sided diet was begun.
Although the occurrence OF nervous
symptoms and gastro-intestinal dis
turbances was noted early, it was not
until September IL, or about five
months after the beginning of the re-
stricted diet, that the skin symptoms
SO characteristic of pellagra began to
develop. These symptoms are consid.
cred as typical, every precaution be-
ing taken to make sure that they were
not caused by any other disease. The
conyicts upon whom the experiment
was being made, as well as twenty
other convicts who were selected as
controls, were kept under continuous
medical surveillance. No cases of
pellagra developed in camp excepting
among those men who were on the re.
stricted diet. The experimenters have
therefore drawn the conclusion that
pellagra has been caused in at least
six of the eleven volunteers as result
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 respective boards OF
health for the eradication of the dis