The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-02-02

Sunburn, especially on backs of the wrists, about the ankles and about the mouth. Full-hedged pellagra is more common among the poor white population in the south, but milder, perhaps unrecognized cases occur frequently among the middle class and even the well-to-do in the north, in the experience of physicians who are well informed about nutritional deficiencies and on the lookout for the earlier manifestations.
 The cause of pellagra is i1ade- quate supply of vitamin G in the daily diet. Best food sources of vita min G are liver, fresh beef, egg yolk, beet greens, fresh milk, watercress, spinach, green peas, dried peas, wheat germ, plain wheat; and the richest source is dried yeast, which is commonly used as food supple ment, both to prevent and to cure pellagra.
 Icthyosis, otherwise called "alliga- tor hide" and fish skin disease, is also a constitutional disorder rather than a mere skin trouble, although 1t does not impair general health. Its milder type is called xerOsis or xerOderma, which means abnormally dry skin; this is often seen in cer- tain areas of skin-notably back of the elbows and on the outer surfaces of the thighs and calves. The more pronounced alligator hide, fish skin or toad skin, @ reficiency regarded as congenital in all cases and certainly present at birth in some cases, may involve the greater portion of the skin surface.
 Most children or adults with xer- osis (dry skin), icthyoSis (fish-skin) or keratosis (horny or warty nut meg-grater-like papules at openings of the sebaceous glands-the so- called "pores'D have subnormal or slow metabolism. This, in my opin- ion, is an indication that they need more vitamins, particularly vitamin D. I offer this opinion merely as an inference I have drawn from study of the scientific literature on nutri- tion. Deficiency of vitamin A is re- garded by many authorities as the cause or 8 cause of discrimination of epithelium-keratoSis, harshness, loss of vitality and functional effi- .ciency in the epithelium covering skin or mucous membrane. Finally, as already pointed out, vitamin G is known as the anti-pellagra vitamin it prevents and cures pellagra.
 Here I am bound to say that I personally regard vitamin A as ap- ocryphal. I do not doubt that it has been isolated, chemically identified and indeed Is now manufactured and used remedially as a pure vitamin. do doubt that any satisfactory clinical evidence supports the prac- tice of prescribing vitamin A; I be- lieve the experimental evidence available is confusing, that the ac- tual effects ascribed to vitamin A are generally due to vitamin D ad- mtnistered along with 1t. Take it or leave it. merely offer my opin- ion.
 Now what to do about rough skin.
 That's one of the many things you1l learn if you watch this col umn. You needn't be afraid of get tting hurt here-we run it as Hip operates, and Luke, another physi- clan, advised.
 Odd House
 When will you have booklet in- cludtng all the interesting things you have printed about odd House.? We hope you will issue such a booklet, as we have clipped and kept many of the articles but fear we may have missed some? (Mrs. M S)
 Answer-May be in 1948. It is still @ bit early for the majority of peo- pie to take seriously such sugges- tions. apparently. The average man