The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-30

| ! l WW cial)-A loss of 5000 hu-
 V V man lives in the southern states this year is estimated by pr. | Joseph Goldberger. dietary disease expert of the United States public health service, as the result Of pei lagra.
 Lack of information and slowness of obtaining reports in the districts affected are hampering the rellet measures that the public health serv- ice and the local and state authori- ties are launching. In Mississippi the state board of health, under pr. 1 w. & Leathers. is organizing a cam paign to eradicate the disease and the local Red Cross is aiding The state and national authorities lack emergency appropriations that may be used for relief measures in com batting this form of starvation, and they are forced to rely on non-offi- cial relief.
 The ammunition in the fight against pellagra is food. No qr--'an- tines must be established nor are oth- CT precautionary measures called for, as in the case of an epidemic Of contagious disease. Pellagra is not catching" Although it often attacks many in the same community. 1t is largely an economic disease and the
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 "The three Ms, meat meal and molasses. are commonly the cause of nellarra" explains pr: Goldberger. Tn the southern states when times are hard, fat meat, corn meal and molasses are the principal foods or many people. If they continue to live on this diet for any length of time, they are very likely to become weak and nervous, have indigestion ard break out with an eIuption that al first looks very much like sunburn.
 Under proper treatment and With careful nursing only a small percen- tase of pellagra victims lie, but l nevertheless the actual number Of tdeaths is deplorably large. Food Is +the medicine used in pellagra treat ment. Fresh lean meat, milk cheese, green vegetables and eggs eaten ire I ouentlv are both the sure cure and the prevention"
 Pellagra and poverty go hand In | I io of ease occurred in 1915 just after the outbreak of the European war Ill Buy a Bale" daysNwhen cotton could not be sold and business in the south was at a standstill. In 1917. when rise in food prices began to affect the tables of the south, there was an- other aggravation. But with increase in wages during the war pellagra decreased until in 1919-2o, there was the smallest amount of this disease since it was recognized in this coun- try.
 Last year pr. Goldberger predicted the present outbreak when it was evident that industrial depression was approaching, and only, the drop that has occurred in food prices pre- vented the worst outbreak in the his tory of the south
 Next year. if conditians should re- main as they are. or if food becomes more expensive, as some believe II will, we may expect still greater number of cases of pellagra in the south" Dr. Goldberger states. Small : savinss acquired during the war wears are now being spent and ex- hausted."
 investigations that the public health service has made during the previous epidemics show that pel- lasra Is prevalent where the family income is extremely low. and that as the income decreases the rate of the disease per thousand of population becomes greater
 When pellagra became widespread in the south in 1908 and 1909 and was recognized. many thought that 1t was a health service tests conducted by pr. Goldberger proved conclusively that lit is due to diet alone.
 'No germ that can properly be con sidered it's cause has ever been founa. Attemps to give persons peNagra by : 1 inoculations of blood or saliva and , other body discharges from severe cases of pellagra have failed com q pletely. On lde other hand. when II r convicts were fed on an unbalance . diet composed mainly of biscuit. corn : bread, grits, rice, gravy and s.rup ,. with only few vegetables and nc milk. meat or fruit. at leAst six de-