328 Vitamines and Deficiency Diseases [June-September 



the disease can be stopped by a change of diet; and, usually, the 

 cases improve in July and August when the diet is better. 



Devoto often found alimentary glycosuria in bis cases, an Obser- 

 vation that corresponds with my results on pigeons. Bardin (60) 

 found an increase in lymphocytes, large and small, at the expense 

 of the polymorphonuclear neutrophiles, a fact that I have noted 

 in experimental beriberi in pigeons. Beeson (61) found, in 25 cases 

 of Pellagra, complications with disease of the thyroid gland. In one 

 of these cases, with enlarged thyroid, pellagra disappeared when the 

 thyroid trouble ceased. Nicolaidi (62) found that, in acute pel- 

 lagra, there are enormous losses of all kinds of nutritive constitu- 

 ents, mostly thrpugh the feces; losses far greater than those ob- 

 served in chronic enteritis. In chronic pellagra a negative balance, 

 chiefly through loss in the feces, was found concerning salts, phos- 

 phorus, magnesium, sodium and chlorin. Albertoni and Tullio (63) 

 reported a negative nitrogen-balance on a maize diet, which became 

 positive after addition of meat. Myers and Fine (64) performed 

 metabolism experiments on pellagrins, put not on their original diet 

 but on normal ordinary f ood. The utilization of various food-stuffs 

 was very slightly lower than in the controls. There were low creatin 

 and Creatinin excretions, and a high indicanuria combined with an 

 increase in the amount of ethereal sulfates. 



Siler and Garrison (65) found the disease prevalent among 

 women. Thus, in Spartanburg, S. C, out of 282 cases the incidence 

 of the disease was 3 females to i male. It is very frequent after 

 childbirth. Grimm (66) observed that pellagra occurred in women 

 twice as often as in men. As predisposing causes he considers preg- 

 nancy, lactation, puerperal fever and eclampsia. Weston (67) de- 

 scribed 15 cases of infantile pellagra in one of which the mother 

 was pellagrous. As a remedy he recommends weaning and the main- 

 tenance of the best hygienic surroundings. The cases of infantile 

 pellagra complete the analogy of this disease with infantile beriberi 

 and scurvy. 



Etiology. Since the appearance of my book many authors see 

 in the diet the cause of pellagra. Weiss (68) reported cases 

 in Rovereto, in Austrian Tyrol, where the number diminished from 

 8,053 'ri 1904 to 3,503 in 1912, as a result of improved dietary con- 



