THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



207 



DISTBIBUTION AND CAUSE OF 

 PELL AGE A 

 Dr. Louis W. Sambon, of the Lon- 

 don School of Tropical Medicine, who 

 is about to visit the United States in 

 response to an invitation to join the 

 Pellagra Commission which is working 

 in 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 be confined to 

 the peasantry in parts of Italy and 



other regions adjacent to the Mediter- 

 ranean. The symptoms are first a red 

 smarting rash — whence 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 

 at a meeting of the British Association 



Peofessob 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. 



