50 McCOLLUM— RELATION OF DIET TO PELLAGRA. 



known to be the case with beri-beri and the xerophthahnia of die- 

 tary origin, or whether pellagra may be the result of taking a diet 

 faulty in respect to the quality or quantity of protein, relative short- 

 age of one or more of the essential inorganic elements, or of the 

 recognized unidentified dietary essentials as contributing factors. 



In his earlier papers Goldberger expressed the view that : " On 

 the whole, however, the trend of available evidence strongly sug- 

 gests that pellagra will prove to be a ' deficiency ' disease very closely 

 related to beri-beri." Chittenden and Underbill reported the pro- 

 duction in dogs of a condition suggestive of pellagra in man by re- 

 stricting the animals for periods of from two to eight months to a 

 ■ diet of crackers, peas, and cottonseed oil. They formulated the con- 

 clusion that : " From the facts enumerated the conclusion seems 

 tenable that the abnormal state may be referred to a deficiency of 

 some essential dietary constituent or constituents, presumably be- 

 longing to the group of hitherto unrecognized but essential compo- 

 nents of an adequate diet." 



We have reported elsewhere the results of a study of the nature 

 of the dietary faults of a mixture of bolted wheat flour, peas, and 

 cottonseed oil, and found that it was an incomplete food, but that it 

 was rendered complete for the support of normal growth in the 

 young rat by the addition of purified protein, certain inorganic salts 

 (NaCl and CaCOs) and fat-soluble A (in butter fat). It is of 

 course not satisfactorily established that the condition produced in 

 dogs by the diet of Chittenden and Underbill was actually the coun- 

 terpart of pellagra in man, strikingly similar as the results appear. 

 We hold the view that if the condition produced in the dogs of these 

 investigators is actually to be regarded as experimental pellagra, it 

 cannot be regarded as caused by the lack of an unidentified dietary 

 essential, since the only one of these necessary for completing the 

 diet (for the rat) is that contained in butter fat, and the latter sub- 

 stance is not curative for any condition resembling pellagra, but for 

 a specific eye disease, xerophthalmia. 



In his most recent studies Goldberger and his associates exam- 

 ined the diets of pellagrous and non-pellagrous families in villages 

 in South Carolina, and found that the diet of the non-pellagrous 

 contained more milk, fresh meats, eggs, butter, and cheese than did 



