1914

Surgeon General Rupert Blue sends USPHS physician Joseph Goldberger to the south to determine cause, treatment, and prevention of pellagra. In September he begins feeding experiments (adding animal protein to diets) in two Miss. orphanages. In June 1914, he begins publishing and presenting on his finds, viz, pellagra not contagious, staff members never contract it, animal protein cures and prevents, milk=most valuable single food,” exclusion of corn from those with symptoms (Kraut II, 115ff.). Then, in collaboration with Governor Earl Brewer of Miss., he induced pellagra in six of 11 prisoners at Rankin State Prison Farm by switching them from normal protein-rich diet to corn-based diet for six months; six developed pellagra ; all were granted pardons by the governor for their participation in the experiment, which ran from April through October, 1915 (121ff.). Then in 1915 “filth parties” in which pellagrin blood transfused and epidermal scales, scabs, secretions, urine, feces consumed in pill form by 16 volunteers, none of whom developed pellagra = conclusive proofs pellagra is not communicable person to person, though not addressing possibility of an insect (per yellow fever) or animal vector, as his critics pointed out (145-50). Then, survey of residents (ca. 4000+) of seven textile mill villages in Piedmont of SC, beginning April 1916 and continuing for 2.5 years = canvassing of homes to det. incidence of pellagra in relation to sanitation, family income, food accessibility. Families questioned about family income, household food supply, household composition. Statistical analysis of 747 household by G’s statistician, with 97 cases of pellagra showed that “When economic data were correlated with data on pellagra incident,” proportion of families with pellagra “declined with a marked degree of regularity as income increases.” “Whatever the course that led to an attack of pellagra, it began with a light pay envelope” (164). Also in 1916, a Concord, NC vet suggested “black tongue” in dogs (severe inflammation of mouth, gums, & teeth, weight loss, bloody diarrhea, death) was canine analogue of pellagra; in 1917, Yale physiologists Chittenden and Underhill reported causing severe illness in dogs resembling pellagra by altering diet; meat cured them (Bryan, 245).