Jan. 29, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
ire 
blood and die? About how long does the 
attack last? 
“I have lost numbers of dogs affected in this 
way, but have found a treatment which I believe 
has some merit. 
“I would thank you very much to show this 
letter to Mr. Best, the gentleman who is repre¬ 
sented as having contracted pellagra from his 
doge while treating them. 
“Trusting that you will favor me with a 
reply, I am very truly, 
“Jno. F. Draughon.” 
“Benson, La., Dec. 20, 1909.—Prof. Jno. F. 
Draughon, Nashville, Tenn.: Dear Sir—Your 
letter of the 13th with reference to an article 
by the press dispatch, which stated my opinion 
on the cause of pellagra. 
“I beg to say that the symptoms which you 
describe are precisely the same as we have ref¬ 
erence to, in the disease commonly called ‘sore 
mouth’ of the dog. 
“The original article which we have prepared 
for publication has not yet been published. 
Same should appear in the next issue of the 
New Orleans Surgical and Medical Journal, 
New Orleans, La. Would be very glad for you 
to write them for a copy containing the article. 
Same gives description of symptoms very simi¬ 
lar to which you mention in your letter. Kindly 
let me hear from you again when you read 
my article. Very truly, 
“J. R. Rushing, M.D.” 
“Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 28, 1909.—Dr. J. R. 
Rushing, President the DeSoto Medical Asso¬ 
ciation of Louisiana, Benson, La.: Dear Sir— 
I am in receipt of your letter of Dec. 20, and 
note that you say the symptoms of the dogs 
from which your patient is supposed to have 
contracted pellagra are identically those of my 
affected dogs, as stated in my former letter. I 
am now confident that your patient’s dogs were 
suffering with what I call ‘black tongue.’ 
“It was during the past summer that the first 
one of my dogs manifested symptoms of the 
disease, and I immediately put him in the care 
of a local veterinarian, who, after an examina¬ 
tion, stated that it looked as if the dog had had 
a dose of carbolic acid. The animal was there¬ 
fore treated in accordance with the doctor’s 
diagnosis. In a day or two the dog began to 
pass blood, and in a few days thereafter died. 
“About this time another of my dogs was 
affected in the same manner, showing symp¬ 
toms of salivation, or of having had a dose of 
carbolic acid; his tongue, throat and jaws being 
inflamed. He carried his jaws slightly apart, 
with long strings of saliva hanging from his 
mouth. He also had considerable fever. I 
noticed him go to a tub of water and therein 
bury his head up to his eyes. Before his death 
his throat, mouth and tongue seemed to become 
dry and parched, and I observed that the color 
of the affected parts changed from a fiery red 
to a bluish-black. 
“This latter attack, as in the case of the 
other dogs, was sudden, the dog having been 
apparently well on the day before. 
“My first knowledge of his sickness came 
with my observation that he was utterly unable 
to eat or drink, his mouth and throat being in 
such condition as to prevent the passage of 
solid or liquid diet except by force. 
“He was given the same treatment as the 
ether dog, and, as in the former case, the attack 
was followed in a few days by the passing of 
blood, and then the death of the dog. 
“After considering fully the cases of both of 
the dogs, I was convinced that the intestines 
of the dog had become ulcerated. 
“It was not long till the third member of the 
pack was attacked by the malady. I now real¬ 
ized that a genuine epidemic was prevailing 
among my dogs. 
“I ’phoned Sheriff Jennings, of Lebanon, as 
I remembered he having once told me of his 
dogs suffering with a disease some call ‘black 
tongue.’ 
“On describing to him the symptoms of my 
afflicted dogs he told me that his dogs had also 
been affected in the same manner as mine. He 
stated that he had lost all of one pack of dogs; 
that he then secured another pack, but during 
the subsequent summer they, too, became af¬ 
fected likewise, but by the application of a rem¬ 
edy he had succeeded in saving nearly all of 
the second pack. 
“Here is the prescription, together with the 
manner in which I applied it: One grain of 
calomel every hour until four or five grains are 
given; six hours later one ounce of castor oil, 
followed by one tablespoonful of sulphur twice 
a day. But after giving the sulphur one day I 
changed the treatment as follows: 
“I sprinkled the tongue, jaws and fauces with 
powdered boric acid one time, and gave about 
thirty-five drops of echinacea in a little water 
every three or four hours. Alternating with 
this, I gave about twenty drops of mangifera 
(Lloyd’s preparations) about every four hours 
in about two tablespoonfuls of water. 
“To inject the mangifera I used a small 
syringe, spraying the medicament on the affected 
parts so as to make a wash for the tongue and 
the lining of the mouth, yet forcing the dog to 
swallow as much of the medicine as possible; 
and I increased or decreased the number of 
drops in accordance with what I thought I 
could succeed in getting the dog to swallow. 
“The mangifera (as you know) is for the in¬ 
flamed throat, mouth and intestines. I believe 
that in this disease the intestines are affected 
identically as are the throat and the mouth; 
hence, the necessity of having the dogs to 
swallow the mangifera when using it as a wash, 
as before stated. 
“The echinacea is, as you also know, for the 
purification of the blood, and, of course, also 
requires internal application. It also seems to 
aid the mangifera materially as a treatment for 
the inflamed parts. 
“It may be that your patient contracted pel¬ 
lagra from contact with his dogs, but from 
what you state it is possible that the dogs did 
not have that disease, although what they did 
have may have been communicated to man, 
and, in process of advancement and develop¬ 
ment, assumed the form, with the attendant 
symptoms, of pellagra. I presume, too, that 
your patient’s dogs, like my own, lived only a 
few days after infection, which would strengthen 
the statement that the dogs were, perhaps, not 
affected with pellagra; for there is abundant 
evidence that man suffering with this disease 
may survive for many years. 
“When I had fully decided that my dogs had 
‘black tongue’ I discussed the matter with sev¬ 
eral veterinarians, some of them local, others 
practitioners in the east. Only one of those 
consulted had ever heard of the disease called 
‘black tongue.’ He stated that it was compara¬ 
tively a new disease, confined wholly to the 
southern territory; that it had been only a few 
years since his attention was called, for the 
first time, to the disease. 
“One prominent local veterinarian informed 
me that the disease was usually treated as dumb 
rabies, and that according to records, not a 
case had been cured, 
“One of my friends, who had had a great 
deal of experience with dogs, came to the city 
while my dogs were sick, and I induced him 
to go with me and look at them. After look¬ 
ing at them he told me that many of his own 
dogs had been affected in the same way, and 
that he and his neighbors had always pro¬ 
nounced the disease hydrophobia; that of all 
the cases he had known there had not been 
a single recovery, and that dogs affected with 
it were usually killed. 
“I believe that in nine cases out of ten the 
disease I call ‘black tongue,’ perhaps the same 
disease of the dogs from which your patient 
evidently contracted pellagra, can be cured if 
the prescription here given is followed, with 
the dogs properly cared for and properly fed 
on liquid diet for a few days. 
“With the dog’s tongue and throat swollen 
and inflamed, it is out of the question for him 
to take either fobd or drink by the ordinary 
means; hence, he should be drenched with a 
small quantity of water or boiled sweet milk 
once or twice each day, and a small amount of 
beef tea or one or two raw eggs should be 
given him by force each day until he is in con¬ 
dition to take nourishment through his own 
efforts. 
“From investigation I would infer that dogs 
do not have ‘black tongue’ during the winter 
months, and but few, if any cases, have ever 
developed north of the Ohio River. 
“No doubt you are beginning to think that I 
have strayed far from the primary intent of this 
letter—the discussion of pellagra as a disease 
attacking only mankind. Well, I confess that 
I had at heart the interest of the dog as well 
as the man when I wrote you; but if it is a 
fact that your patient contracted pellagra from 
contact with a dog affected with what some call 
‘black tongue’ or ‘sore mouth,’ a study of the 
dog’s condition would certainly prove profit¬ 
able to both man and dog, even though the 
form of the disease attacking man may be far 
different from the form of that affecting the 
dog. 
“Knowing, as I do, from actual experience, 
that the remedy here given will cure a dog 
affected with what I call ‘black tongue,’ the 
same disease, I suppose, your patient’s dogs 
had, from which he contracted pellagra—I 
would be inclined to experiment with the same 
remedy if I were attacked with pellagra trace¬ 
able to my contact with dogs so affected. Very 
truly, Jno F. Draughon.” 
“More than five thousand elephants a year 
go to make our piano keys,” remarked the 
student boader, who had been reading the 
scientific notes from a patent-medicine almanac. 
“My word!” exclaimed the landlady. “Ain’t 
it wonderful what some animals can be trained 
to do?”—Harper’s Magazine. 
