194 Vitamins in Human Nutrition
tain most nicotinic acid, are red meat, fish, liver, eggs, pea-
nuts, and most greens. Wheat germ is also well supplied,
but oats and corn have practically none, and beans and peas
very little. Milk is not a very good source, and for once the
good old Irish potato also fails to come to the rescue. Dried
brewer’s yeast is the richest natural source, and since it con-
tains all members of the B complex is particularly valuable
both in prevention and treatment of pellagra. One ounce
daily is usually adequate for treatment.
In the past, attempts have been made by the Public
Health Service, Red Cross, and other Good Samaritan
agencies, to relieve the suffering in pellagra outbreaks by
supplying meat, fish, eggs, greens, and other good foods,
but the expense has limited the accomplishments. Much
good missionary work has been done in educating people in
pellagrous areas to supplement their meager diets, if only
with catfish, rabbits, and dandelion greens.
Now, however, the possibility looms of abolishing or at
least alleviating pellagra wholesale by the simple expedient
of adding a trace of nicotinic acid to the table salt, as for
years we have been adding iodine in goiterous areas. The
first large-scale use of nicotinic acid for the alleviation of
human Sufferingwas in 1938, when American scientists sent a
large shipment of it to Spain to relieve 40,000 people suffer-
ing from pellagra in Madrid. It is hardly to be expected
that pellagrins can often be made entirely well by the use
of nicotinic acid alone, for the poor diet which deprived
them of this vitamin is almost certain to have deprived
them of others as well, particularly thiamin. Nevertheless,
with the most severe deficiency rectified, the improvement
in digestion and absorption may go far towards alleviating
the other deficiencies. Meanwhile educational efforts can
be directed towards the establishment of small vegetable