190 Vitamins in Human Nutrition
associated with a diet in which white corn (maize) is the
mainstay. One of the first theories about it was that it was a
poisoning from spoiled corn. Then it was believed to be an
infectious disease, either caused by a germ found in corn,
or transmitted by insects in corn-growing regions. This idea
was exploded by Dr. Goldberger, who demonstrated the
immunity of well-fed people to the disease, even when ex-
posed to it on all sides, and showed that such people failed
to contract the disease from any sort of inoculations from
pellagrins. There is no doubt, however, but that infec-
tious diseases, especially of the alimentary canal, may be
instrumental in precipitating a case of pellagra.
Pellagra is one of the modern curses of Egypt, and fre-
quently breaks out, especially in spring, in many parts of
Europe and Africa, but there is probably more pellagra at
present in our own southern states than in any other place
in the world. In the United States a total of over seven
thousand deaths a year from pellagra is not an infrequent
record. In some years there are more deaths from pellagra
than from tuberculosis or malaria. The poverty-stricken
share-croppers of the Mississippi valley, and negro laborers
on cotton plantations throughout the southeast, have this
disfiguring and disabling disease always with them. It
rises and falls with the price of cotton, with the advent of
local floods, droughts, and malaria epidemics, and with the
rotation of the seasons, for all these factors are concerned
in the ability of these people to add to their basic diet of
corn, molasses, salt pork, and coffee. In the summer they
usually piece out their meals with a few fresh greens, water-
melons, and black-eyed peas, but in lean years the winter
menu consists of corn for breakfast, maize for lunch, and
hominy for supper, with an occasional catfish or swamp
rabbit to break the everyday routine. Although many chil-