INVESTIGATIONS IN HUMAN NUTRITION. 383 



FOODS AND THEIR RELATION TO PROBLEMS OF HYGIENE. 



The investigations on cold storage summarized in the preceding 

 section have an important bearing on hygiene, as is evidenced from 

 the data to which reference has been made. That the whole ques- 

 tion of food in relation to hygiene is a subject of much interest at the 

 present time is shown by the extent of the published work which 

 bears upon the subject. 



Two widespread diseases are commonly said to have some connec- 

 tion with cereal grains — namely, beriberi, which is a very common 

 occurrence in Java and other eastern countries, and which is com- 

 monly associated with rice, and pellagra, which is by many investi- 

 gators believed to have some connection with the use of Indian corn. 

 Both diseases are well characterized and have been the subject of a 

 large amount of investigation, yet in neither case is the problem 

 solved. Both pellagra and beriberi have been attributed to specific 

 micro-organisms accidentally -conveyed, respectively, by corn and by 

 rice; to some characteristic of the proteids present in these cereals, 

 to a deficiency in ash, or some specific characteristic of the ash 

 constituents of the grain. Undernutrition has likewise been held by 

 many to be an important contributing cause. A theory which finds 

 much to support it attributes pellagra to a parasite conveyed by the 

 agency of an insect bite. 



As yet it has not been necessary for American investigators to take 

 up the question of beriberi; but, on the other hand, the reporting of 

 cases of pellagra in different parts of the United States has led a num- 

 ber of American investigators to study this disease with special ref- 

 erence to the theory often advanced that it is in some way con- 

 nected with the use as food of spoiled Indian corn. This subject is 

 being investigated by the United States Public Health and Marine- 

 Hospital Service, and among other papers, mention should be made 

 of the extended summary of Lavinder.*^ It seems apparent from 

 this and other work that pellagra is most usually found among per- 

 sons who are or have been poorly nourished and among those who 

 are, for this or some other reason, thought to be less resistant to 

 diseases than persons in better physical condition. Perhaps, for this 

 reason, pellagra has been particularly noticeable in asylums for the 

 insane and similar institutions. One of Lavinder's general deduc- 

 tions was that under the circumstances Indian corn should be omitted 

 from tiie dietary of such institutions, and until its cause has been 

 definitely ascertained he considers that the use of corn in the home 

 is to be regarded as an open question which each individual must 

 settle for himself. 



a Pub. Ilealth and Marine-Hosp. Serv. U. S., 1908; N. Y. Med. Jour, and Phila. Med. 

 Jour., 90 (1909), p. 54. 



