74 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



From Story County, Iowa, it is reported that &quot;last November a disease appeared 

 among herds recently turned into corn-stalk fields. The disease is evidently the dry mur 

 rain. A post-mortem examination showed the mucous membrane of the stomach to be 

 highly inflamed, with symptoms of poisoning. It is evident that the disease is generated 

 in the stalk fields, and probable that it is produced by gorging the stomach when first turned 

 into the stalks, after being confined on the wild, frost-bitten, prairie grass, and lack of 

 sufficient water.&quot; A few cattle died of dry murrain in Audubon County, in the same 

 State, &quot;supposed by some to be caused by smut in corn-stalks.&quot; A few head were lost 

 from the same cause in Calhoun County, and many are reported to have died in Marshall 

 County. We are, however, informed from Sac County that many cattle died in Decem 

 ber cause unknown; &quot;some supposed from eating smutty corn, but that has been dis 

 proved.&quot; It is to be regretted that more is not stated with regard to the reasons which led 

 persons to doubt the effects of the smutty corn. Even in New York State little credence 

 was given to the action of smutty corn at first ; but careful inquiry proved that after all it 

 was the cause of the dry murrain of the fall of 1868. From Dakota County, Nebraska, 

 we learn of dry murrain from this cause ; whereas from Shawnee County it is reported, 

 and no doubt correctly, that the same disease has been noticed among cattle &quot; fed on 

 prairie hay, cut after frost.&quot; 



In Scotland the clovers are apt to induce a similar condition at times, and the mal 

 ady is there called &quot;grass disease.&quot; It is not a specific affection, but arises from a dry- 

 ness and indigestibility of one kind of food, animals being debarred by circumstances from 

 a salutary admixture of different kinds of feed. 



The cultivation of maize or Indian corn is already ancient in America; and the intro 

 duction of this important grain into Spain, and as far back as 1560 into Italy, should have 

 resulted in the knowledge of its effects on man and animals, under the many conditions 

 in which it is found. Indeed, we are not without some knowledge of the subject, though 

 it is to be regretted that accurate information can be gleaned from the writings of few 

 who have referred to it. Both in its effects on men and animals, the consumption of In 

 dian corn should be studied in localities where at times it constitutes the main article of 

 diet, and where it is used at all times with other kinds of food. 



Among men in America, from time immemorial, its use could be diversified by that 

 of game, whereas in some parts of Italy, remarkable for the prevalence of pellagra among 

 the inhabitants, people often live exclusively on corn bread, or the corn pudding they 

 call polenta. The excess of starchy constituents, and scantiness of nitrogenous materials 

 in corn as compared with the other grains from which flour and bread are manufactured, 

 have been considered the causes of a cachectic and ill-nourished condition said to prevail 

 wherever maize is the staple article of diet among a people. 



Mazzari,* Nardi,f and Letti have described the pellagra of Italy, which I witnessed 

 some years ago in a bad form in the hospital of Ferrara, as due to diseased or smutty 

 corn. 



The extensive cultivation of maize in Italy dates from the eighteenth century, and it 

 is recorded by the celebrated Monati and others that before that period pellagra was 

 unknown. Balardini experimented with a view to demonstrate that the smut on corn is 

 poisonous, and he records deleterious effects on fowls and even dogs. 



* Silvio medico-politico milla pellagra, Milauo, 18116. t Causa c euro della pellagra, Mihino, 183C. 



