A treatise on pellagra : for the general practitioner / by Edward Jenner Wood.

  • Wood, Edward Jenner, 1878-
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on pellagra : for the general practitioner / by Edward Jenner Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ness, pains, fainting, melancholia, and even dementia there were sufficient distinguishing characteristics manifested to differentiate readily the two conditions even in the earlier days. Astruc said of pellarella: It does not differ in many mani- festations from our scorbutic pellagra. But he described the disease as affecting the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet with a pus formation and much furrowing of the skin. Strombio thought pellagra might as well be coin]tared with syphilis, and he further scoffed at the idea of Videmar that it was an old skin lesion on the ground that the natural conditions of man were the same and had undergone no change, and further that hypochondriasis was an old condition. But Strombio pointed out the fact that hypochondriasis was by no means peculiar to pellagra. Bona thought it was an old disease akin to elephantiasis which had undergone great evolutionary change. Videmar mistook a disease called solsido by the country people for pellagra, but this was probably an error, as it was a very trivial condition, thereby differing from pellagra. Allioni took Strombio to task for con- cluding so positively that there was no connection between his purpura chronica and pellagra. It is likely that our present idea of the modernity of pellagra owes its origin largely to the writings of the above oft-mentioned Gaetno Strombio. It is only right that the work of this man should be given most respectful attention, for he wrought valiantly in his day and time. His writings show great accuracy and a wonderful power of observation, entitling them to favorable com- ment as accurate scientific work, even by the fierce light of modern criticism. Probably no man before or since his time was given such opportunities for the study of the disease. In 1784 the first hospital for the treatment of pellagra was estab- lished under a grant of Joseph II of Austria, and Strombio was placed in charge of it. At the close of 1788 this hospital was abandoned and Strombio was given charge of the greater hospital of the same character in Milan. This position was held for three years, and during that time his observations were made. He