191 5] Casimir Funk 329 



ditions. The peasants there now eat polenta two to three times a 

 day, but with additional food. They are encouraged by the authori- 

 ties to keep poultry and to use garden products as food. 



Perez (69) reported on the diet in the Canary Islands, which 

 consists chiefly of gofio, a mixture in equal parts of wheat and 

 maize, first roasted and then ground. This finding would be of 

 practical importance, as no cases of pellagra occur there, provided 

 the observations were correct, that is to say, if no fresh food was 

 eaten, which is hardly possible. 



McDonald (70) described cases of pellagra, in Antigua, that de- 

 veloped on diets of corn-meal and dried fish, a typical scurvy-pro- 

 ducing combination. The disease occurs in Antigua only in blacks, 

 although the white population eats maize as a part of a mixed diet. 

 The author is inclined to accept the " deficiency " theory f or pellagra. 



In this country the food theory, if not the vitamine theory, is 

 now generally accepted. Among the champions of this view we may 

 count the following authors. Grimm (66) stated that most pel- 

 lagrins live on corn-bread and hominy. He found the disease preva- 

 lent among paupers — in 258 cases out of 323, and chiefly among 

 whites. Goldberger (71) found that attendants, nurses, and doc- 

 tors, in pellagra asylums, never suffer f rom the disease because they 

 receive an adequate diet. He advocated fresh meat, eggs and milk 

 instead of the cereals and canned meat, so largely consumed in 

 Southern States. Siler, Garrison and MacNeal (72) described 

 847 cases in Spartanburg county, S. C. They do not endorse the 

 " deficiency " theory, but they admit that the result of dietary treat- 

 ment was good. They state, however, that the patients relapsed 

 when returned to their original environment. These authors should 

 not have been surprised at this outcome, for the patients probably 

 returned, also, to their previous imperfect diets. It is interesting 

 here to note that, as early as 1835, Rayer (73) expressed the view 

 that pellagrins should change their habits and occupation, which, in 

 his opinion, alleviated the Symptoms of the disease. 



Finally, I wish to quote the opinion of Voegtlin (74), who 

 admits the importance of the diet as an etiological factor and con- 

 siders the following three possibilities : , 



