224 FOOD POISONING. 



climate, or from barrenness of the soil, or from lack of proper 

 cultivation, maize does not mature. 



While there can no longer be any doubt that pellagra is an intoxi- 

 cation due to poison formed in corn meal or bread, we have, as yet, 

 no positive information concerning either the ferment which causes 

 these harmful changes or the poisonous substance or substances that 

 are formed. Some think that the disease is an intestinal mycosis, 

 due to infection with a parasitic mould, which is introduced into the 

 body with this food. Carboni found in the damaged meal used by 

 pellagrous persons, also in their feces, a bacterium to which he has 

 given the name bacillus maidis, and to which he ascribes the dis- 

 ease. Majocchi claims to have found this germ in the blood of 

 pellagrous individuals, and according to Paltauf and Heider the 

 grains of corn become infected during the wet season with the 

 bacillus maidis and the bacillus mesentericus fuscus, and these de- 

 compose the moist meal producing ptomains which constitute the 

 toxins. Others claim that the so-called bacillus maidis is nothing 

 more than the widely distributed potato bacillus, that it is incapable 

 of generating toxins under any conditions and that it is by no 

 means constantly found in the intestines of pellagrous individuals. 

 Lombroso thinks the disease is an intoxication rather than an infec- 

 tion, and believes that it is due to certain chemical poisons formed 

 by bacterial activity. This investigator has obtained from powdered 

 corn which has been allowed to ferment at from 25° to 30° for 

 twenty-four to thirty-six hours, an alcoholic extract and an oily 

 substance, and with these he thinks that he has induced the 

 characteristic symptoms of pellagra in man and animals. The 

 alcoholic extract of this corn contains a basic substance or sub- 

 stances to which Lombroso has applied the name pellagrocein, and 

 according to his theory there are two toxins, the combined action of 

 which gives rise to the complex symptoms of pellagra, similar to 

 the action of sphacelinic acid and cornutin in ergotism. One of 

 these poisons he thinks has a strychnin-like effect, while the other is 

 narcotic in its action. Neusser believes that there is nothing 

 directly harmful in the food when it is taken into the body, but 

 that poisons are formed in the intestines and he makes the disease a 

 specific form of auto-intoxication. It is claimed that sporadic cases 

 of pellagra may be due to the use of whisky made from damaged 

 corn ; if this be true, the poisonous substance must be volatile. 



Clinicians generally state that pellagra consists of three stages, 

 which are more or less marked and distinct. The first begins with 

 disturbances of the digestive organs, the tongue is heavily coated, 

 but later it loses its epithelium, there is loss of appetite as a rule, 

 although in exceptional cases the desire for food may be inordinate. 

 Usually there is diarrhea, but obstinate constipation may occur. 

 Accompanying these digestive disturbances there is pain in the head, 



