Localities in which Pellagra is Prevalent. 75 



perimentally in fowls by feeding certain organisms culti- 

 vated on ground maize. Dr. C. C. Bass, for example, 

 claims in the Southern Medical Journal for August, 1911, 

 that a disease of chickens regarded by the Italians as 

 pellagra is produced by feeding them moldy corn. The 

 symptoms appear in summer, and especially in the young, 

 which shed their feathers, and practically all die with blis- 

 tered backs if turned out in the sun. Again, in the Ameri- 

 can Medical Journal for November 18, 1911, the same writer 

 claims to have himself produced in poultry a disease resem- 

 bling pellagra, by feeding spoiled maize inoculated with a 

 "specific Bacterium." 



But while Dr. Bass may prove to be on the right track, 

 it is well to note that physicians who have studied the sub- 

 ject, hold widely divergent opinions as to the relation of 

 corn to pellagra*, and some very emphatic statements have 

 been published with reference to several different agencies, 

 not all of which can have to do with the disease. 



Treatment for Corn Mo?(i. — This bulletin is in the nature 

 of a preliminary survey, and the corn ear fungi must be 

 dealt with briefly, the publication of some details and results 

 of cultures being reserved for a later date. But it may be 

 said that the molding of corn is greatly encouraged by con- 

 ditions over which the farmer has some control. 



In the first place the fungus Diplodia remains in the 

 fields and continues developing there in the grain and stalks 

 long after the crop is cut. Old stalks lying about fields may 

 continue to produce the spores of the fungus for several 

 seasons, and thus infect growing crops. Where mold is 

 prevalent, and especially after a season favorable to mold, 

 it is important to get the crop, stalks and all, off the land 

 and disposed of as soon as practicable. The corn should be 

 husked at once when mature and put in a dry cool crib. The 

 fodder should be either fed or burned. 



* In an article entitled "Pellagra, Its Etiology, Pathology. Diagnosis and Treatment", 

 written by Dr. C. W. G. Rohrer, Medical Assistant to the State Board ol Health, of 

 Maryland, and published in the Transactions of the National Conference on pellagra, in 

 1910, it is positively stated that the disease is due to the fungus Aspergillus fiimigatus, 

 and that the author has observed this fungus growing on corn, peas, beans and buck- 

 wheat, when "beaten to the ground by heavy rains. 



