1907-1909

American pellagra epidemic first recognized at State Hospital for Colored Insane at Mt. Vernon, Ala. (Bryan, 88). On December 30, Babcock submits to SC Board of Health his report on pellagra (which he attributed to bad corn) and Pellagrous Insanity, published in Feb 1908 in J. SC Med Assn. (89-92). Accompanies Benjamin Tilman on European trip after Tilman’s stroke, and in Italy, observes that pellagra is same disease he observed in SC, and was treated in Italy with diet. (Bryan, 89-92)  First Pellagra Conference at Columbia, SC, October 1908 (96ff.) attended by 72 physicians, most from SC, and 20 laypersons: Maize theory and germ theory both defended; nobody brought up Marzari’s “deficiency” hypothesis, all but forgotten after nearly a century. In retrospect, “these speakers had shown that alcoholism, anorexia, and reliance mainly on corn all promoted deficiency of essential nutrients” (98). Babcock himself “was in the main a Zeist [corn], endorsing Lombroso’s ‘spoiled corn’ hypothesis without vigorously defending it” (100). The second national conference took place in Columbia in fall 1909, which led to formation of National Association for the Study of Pellagra. At conference, Lombroso’s version of Zeist hypothesis and Louis Sambon’s version of (direct) infection hypothesis were influential; Sambon’s version “was beginning to work its way to the fore” (108), Conference established (especially via Peoria asylum superintendent George Zeller) that pellagra was a national, not merely southern, problem (110).