77/ A' I'ROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



207 



DISTBIBUTION AND CAUSE OF 

 PELL AGE A 



Dr. Louis W. Sambon, of the Loii- 

 don School of Tropical Medicine, \vho 

 is about to visit tlie Uuited States in 

 response to an invitation to join the 

 Pellagra Commission which is working 

 iu South Carolina, contributes to the 

 last number of The British Medical 

 Journal an article giving an account 

 of several cases in Great Britain and 

 of his theory of the natural history of 

 the disease. Pellagra has been recog- 

 nized for two centuries, but until re- 

 cently was supposed to he confined to 

 the peasantry in p;irts of Ttnly and 



otiier regions adjacent to the Mediter- 

 ranean. The symptoms are first a red 

 smarting rash — wlienee the name of the 

 disease — headache, giddiness and diar- 

 rhoea. It appears in the spring, de- 

 clining towards autumn, and is likely 

 to recur with increased intensity the 

 following spring. Death frequently 

 follows, or a complete disorganization 

 of the nervous system, leading to im- 

 becility and a mummified condition of 

 body. 



The theory of Lombroso that pel- 

 lagra is caused by eating moldy maize 

 was widely accepted, until Dr. Sambon 

 nt a meeting of the British Association 



Professor William Morris Fontaine, 



for thirty-one years professor of natural history and geology in the University of 



Virginia, who has died at the age of seventy-eight years. 



