How long has pellagra existed in South Carolina? : a study of local medical history / by J.W. Babcock.

  • James Woods Babcock
Date:
1912
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: How long has pellagra existed in South Carolina? : a study of local medical history / by J.W. Babcock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    state, reporting’ 187 cases of the disease. In 1909, after a care- ful investigation, Dr. Williams estimated that there were 500 cases of pellagra in South Carolina. The report of the Board of Health for 1910 stated that between 500 and 800 cases of the disease had occurred in the state during the year. In 1911, Dr. J. A. Hayne, the present state health officer, in response to 1200 inquiries, received replies from 250 physicians, placing the total number of pellagrins in the state at about 2100, of whom 1000 were under treatment. A very brief summary of pellagra statistics by admissions to our hospital is: 1907, 4 cases; 1908, 42 cases, or 7 per cent of total admissions; 1909, 92 cases, or 15 per cent of admissions ; 1910, 135 cases, or 20 per cent, and in 1911, up to November i, 162 cases, or 27.7 per cent of admissions. These statistics apply to newly admitted cases. In addition to these, cases of pellagra have seemingly developed in patients long resident. While some skepticism about the existence of sucli a disease as pellagra still persists in South Carolina and elsewhere in the United States, its presence is now quite generally admitted I in 36 states besides our own. I Such statistics as those cited above raise the perennial question: Are we dealing with a new disease in epidemic form, or have we an increasing number of cases of a disease long endemic? With slowly accumulated information, many physicians in South Carolina can now establish on retrospection the presence of pel- lagra in their practice, at least a decade before it was first reported, although the right diagnosis had not been made. W'e know, how- ever, that Dr. H. E. ^McConnell, of Chester, S. C., did make the correct diagnosis in 1903. What evidence have we of its previous occurrence ? Under date of October 23, 1909, Acting Assistant Surgeon Sams, of the U. S. P. H. & M.-H. Service, reported from Charleston in I the Public Health Reports, that ‘‘ Pellagra, as such, has but recently ^ been recognized in this city, the first case having come under treat- I ment in ]\Iarch, 1908. There is a very general impression among ^ the local physicians that pellagra has existed in the citv- for probably twenty years or more, and been incorrectly diagnosed as ‘ eczema,’ ‘ dysentery,’ ‘ intestinal tuberculosis,’ etc., with dementia as a com- I plication, or the reverse.” t