Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-05-26
CHAPTER 62

CHAPTER 63
The Mississippi penitentiary poison
squad experiment, conducted by DIR.
Joseph GoldbePger with the approval
OF Governor Brewer, ended in results
exactly like those noted aboard the
kronprinZ Wilhelm-Through the Suf-
feridgS of twelve conVictS the inade-
quacy of refined, degerminated and de-
mineralized foods has been demon
strated for the hundredth time-Nev-
erthcless, parents and teachers, re-
s,ponsible for the physical stamina of
the children of America, remain ig-
norant of the facts.
About the time the symptoms of
mineral starvation were manifesting
themselves aboard the converted Ger
man cruiser kronprinz Wilhelm on
the high seas, physicians and sur
geons connected with the federal pub
lie health service were undertaking a
series of tests to demonstrate that
pellagra was caused by improper food,
and that the elimination of the cause
would cure the disease.
An exhaustive review of facts re-
lating to the diet OF workingmen's s
families, particularly among the
poorer classes, resulted in the dis
closure that pellagra always followed
a diet rich in carbohydrates (refined
sugars and starches) and that it had
a tendency to show itself wherever
there was rise in the cost of food,
thus making it harder for the poorer
families to obtain a nourishing diet.
In the facts compiled, not one ref
erence was made to the necessity of
substituting the whole corn meal un-
degerminated, either white or yellow,
such for instance as is milled in the
old-faShioned water wheel style by
Knox Crutchfield at Richmond, Va,
for the degerminated corn meal now
consumed so extensively in America.
No reference was made to the fact
that whole wheat meal converted into
bread and breadstuffs, instead of the
white bread and biscuits of the south,
would prevent pellagra.
NO reference was made to the fact
that natural brown rice, freshly
milled, so easily obtainable in the
south, should be substituted for the
polished and demIneralized product
so extensively consumed among the
poor
No reference was made to the fact
that all these foods could be obtained
a Ia price even cheaper than their re-
fined, demineralized, and inadequate
commercial substitutes, which are
consumed in such enormous quantities
throughout the United States.
DR.. Joseph Goldberger, VINO was
among those to visit the stricker
1915, had been seriously concerned
with the obvious inadequacy of the
diet of the thousands of victims OF
pellagra who are to be found every
year in the south.
Accordingly three experiment sta.
tions were established, two at Jack,
son, Miss, and the third at the Geor
gla State Sanatorium.
In his preliminary study of 2O(
cases during the Spring and summer
OF 1914. Goldberger had come to the
conclusion that carbohydrate foods
are responsible for pellagra, and, ac
cordingly he urged a reduction in thu
diet of starchy foods in the treatmen
of the disease.
Then came the sensational poison
squad experience in which twelv,
convicts, six of whom were murder
ers, risked their lives in the interes
| of medical science in order to enabl,
| Goldberger to prove his theory tina
pellagra is directly due to the con
sumption of inadequate food.
These victims in the Mississippi
penitentiary were fed exclusively OF
Disseminated and demineralized corr
! products.
Nov. 2, 1915, after six of tn,
men had developed pellagra in pro
nounced form, and two others haC
shown definite symptoms of the dis
ease, Governor Brewer pardoned then
all.
The authorities had kept the tes
as secret as possible. They feared
that relatives of the prisoners. VIII,
submitted to the ordeal, might in
woke the habeas corpus or resort t,
some other legal device to rescue tn,
victims of the experiment
Several of the conVicts ATTEMPTED
suicide during the test. Two of them
Guy R. James and ID. W. Pitts. mad,
formal application to the penitentiar,
board to be sent back to their cell