The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-21
PELLAGRA

| note nuHlDer or dfuCle5 III the Times concerning pellagra. These arr ticles are in error in that they are misleading as 10 the cause, proven. tion and cure of pellagra. They are to state tbat there is difference of 1 opinion as to the cause of pellagra and that there Is still doubt as to its real cause.
 Il If there is threatened recrudes. cence of pellagra, all this is exceed | ingly unfair to the people of the south, and misleading to the medical l profession who are called upon to l treat these sufferers in the south. | Again, the people of the south who suffer from pellagra are our fellow citizens and are entitled to the best and the truth about such an afflic- tlon Every instinct of humanity die l tates that the truth be told and that these sufferers be relieved and their lives saved.
 | The true cause of pellsgra wal, worked out in the Institute of Hy- | giene of the University of Rome by Professors Alessandrini and Scala. l They published the results of their 1. work in 1sfS-14 The writer was j their collaborator in America. He l translated their work and published collaboration In 1916. For five years this work has been in the English l language, in the hands of the Amer can profession. This research Is final tific findings. There Is nothing further to seek for the cause and pre- vention of pellagra. The treatment Is success but It does not preclude other methods.
 l Pellagra is an endemic and not an epidemic disease. It is a chronic acid
 intoxication and not infectious or communicable in any sense. It is not hereditary.
 Pellagra Is essentially a disease of a fixed agricultural population living upon an eroded and exhausted soil of determinate geologic origin. Pellagra has definite geological geographi- cal distribution. It has no relation to labor, diet, domicile or sanitary environment.
 | Pellagra Is caused by drinking soft water coming from clay soil. Pellagra Is prevented by drinking hard water whose hardness" Is due to the presence of the carbonates of l calcium and magnesium. | Pellagra is cured by the hypoder- mic administration of a 10 per cent solution of sodium citrate. Give one cubic centimeter daily for 15 to 30 days, according 10 the severity of the case, then on alternate days for as long time.
 These measures are so simple, so exact, so scientific. so successful, so cheap. that they do not meet the ap- | proval of the public health service. They would not require an appropri- ation of s150,o00 at this time. A lit- tie newspaper publicity would inform the people of the endemic area. These people would speedily get we'll. and there would be no more need of prop. aganda.
 Pellagra in the United States is prevalent in the regions of the Att lantic Coastal Plain. the Piedmont Plateau, the Gulf Coastal Plain, the Ashland Plateau, certain inland re- gions on the Hanks of the Ozark Bos- ton, Oachita, ArbuclSle and Wichita mountains and where the soils are derived from the shales of the Pep- sylvania series. Pellagra is also oc- casionally found in northern states covered by glacial drift from the great Precambrian Shield around Hudsons Bay. Pellagra has the same | geographical distribution as pine l timber. Prairie countries do not have pellagra, as prairie soils are neces- sarily lime soils.
 Pellagra is not caused by maize ali- mentation. Pellagra is not caused or communicated by the Buffalo gnat or Simulium fly. The theories of Lom- broso and of Sambon have been definitely abandoned, as we'll as disproNen. Pellagra. Is not one of the deficiency" diseases. The disease which was induced by pr. Goldbergtr in the convicts in Mississippi was scurvy and not pellagra. The people of the south arc not underfed. have been through the pellagrous districts of the south where the table was filled with the best three times d day. The wealthiest and the best prqvided die of pellagra. The people of the south have pellagra because their water supply teaches through clays derived from the crystalline, lgneous and metamorphic rocks of the Appalach- ian system. adopted the measures and treatment outlined by the Italian scientists are curing pellagra, Italy abandoned the theories of Lombroso, accepted the findings Of Alessandrini and Scala, and cleaned up pellagra so thorough l ly that the disease. once so preya- lent and so fatal, scarcely figured in her remarkable draft of men for the great war. might add much more but this should suffice.
 F. M. PERDUE. M. D.. D. P. H.
 Kansas City, Mo.