PELLAGRA 



4554 



PELOPIDAS 



similar to it, the brown pelican of the southern 

 seacoast and the West Indies, which frequently 

 penetrates as far north as the Carolinas. Peli- 

 can Island, in Indian Lake, Florida, v 

 aside b}' the United States government in 1903 

 as a pelican refuge, and many of the other 

 bird r< -o harbor great flocks of these 



curious creatures. See BIRD, subtitle Govern- 



rroti-ction of Birds. L.M.B. 



PELLAGRA, pelag'ra, or pe la' gra, from 

 two Italian words, pcllc, meaning akin, and 

 agra, meaning itching, the name of a noncon- 

 ;ng inhabitants of moun- 

 tainous regions, particularly in Italy, Northern 



WHERE PELLAGRA IS FOUND 

 The shaded sections, up to 1917, had developed 

 the only cases of the malady. 



Spain and the southeastern and extreme west- 

 ern parts of the United States. The disease has 

 been known for 200 years, and although it has 

 probably existed in the United States for some 

 time, it was only in 1864 that the first case was 

 diagnosed. Since the beginning of the twen- 

 tieth century the disease has spread at an ap- 

 palling rate, the number of victims reaching 

 nearly 50,000 by 1917. Most of the victims are 

 women between thirty and forty years of age. 

 Persons afflicted with pellagra are irritable and 

 always tired, and have continual abdominal 

 pain and an eruption of red and black blotches. 

 The cause of the disease has not been satis- 

 factorily determined; it has been attributed to 

 corn, cornbread, cottonseed oil, sandflies and 

 the deposit granite leaves on water as it de- 

 composes. Modern investigators are almost 

 certain that a one-sided diet is responsible, 

 such as a diet of fat meat, bread and molasses; 

 in fact, the very sort of diet a mountaineer of 

 the poor or lower middle class is Hkely to have. 

 Poor sanitation and defective drainage in 

 homes or mills and factories seem to aggravate 

 pellagra. In spite of the tremendous increase 

 of the disease in the last few years, the outlook 



appears hopeful, for while formerly large num- 

 bers died from the malady, now eighty per cent 

 of tho>e who contract it when they are young 

 fully recover. The cure is effected by restoring 

 lean meat, peas and beans to the diet, and re- 

 moving to a community where sanitary condi- 

 tions are good. Injections of an alkaline char- 

 acter, such as sodium citrate or cacodylate of 

 sodium, are of great benefit. As the disease 

 tends to return after apparent recovery, victims 

 arc advised by physicians to continue treatment 

 for several years after an attack. Successive 

 annual attacks cause chronic pellagra. c.n.u. 



Consult Goldberger and Lorenz's Cause, !'><- 

 vention and Treatment of Pellagra; Lavimlrr's 

 The Prevalence and Geographic Distribution of 

 Pellagra in the United States. 



PELLETIER, pel tya', Louis PHILIPPE (1857- 

 ), a Canadian statesman, who became Post- 

 master-General in the Dominion Cabinet 

 formed by Sir Robert Borden in 1911. Pelle- 

 tier was born at Trois Pistoles, Que., and was 

 educated at Sainte Anne College and Laval 

 University. He was called to the bar in 1880, 

 and thereafter practiced law at Quebec. He 

 was several times elected to the provincial as- 

 sembly, and was attorney-general of the prov- 

 ince from 1896 to 1897. In 1911 he was elected 

 to the Dominion House of Commons by Que- 

 bec County, and was at once appointed Post- 

 master-General in the new Conservative Minis- 

 try. As Postmaster-General he was responsible 

 for the establishment of a comprehensive sys- 

 tem of rural mail delivery. He also arranged a 

 two-cent postal rate to France, and made vigor- 

 ous efforts to break the monoply of the cable 

 companies. 



PELOPIDAS, pe lop' idas ( ? -364 B.C.), a 

 hero of Thebes, associated with Epaminondas, 

 whom he helped to make Boeotia for a time 

 the leading state in Greece. His youth was 

 spent in idleness and pleasure, for he had great 

 wealth and was of high family. Driven to 

 Athens in 382 B. c., when the Spartan influence 

 became supreme in Thebes, he laid plans to 

 overthrow the usurpers, and in 379 returned at 

 the head of a determined band, attacked the 

 garrison and compelled the Spartans to sur- 

 render. He then set up a democratic form of 

 government and was for several years elected 

 boeotarch. He organized a Sacred Band among 

 the young patriots, and this was of great help 

 to Epaminondas at the battle of Leuctra in 

 371 B.C.; in the next year he took part in an 

 invasion of the Peloponnesus, which resulted 

 favorably for Thebes. 



