Important: Safety Warning
This page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Pellagra
a chronic disease occurring in many parts of the world, including the southern portions of the United States. Its cause is not certainly PELLICO a determined. For a long time it was thought to be due to the eating of damaged maize (corn). More recently Sambon claims to have discovered a protozoal organism responsible for the pellagra symptoms which is tran which is transmitted by a small fly Simulium replans. The symptoms of pellagra are sore mouth, gastric and intestinal disturbance, a skin eruption in summer which disappears on the approach of cold weather and returns in the following spring; when the disease has lasted for four or five years the skin becomes atrophied, wrinkled, and inelastic; walking is difficult, the victim tending to fall either forward or backward. The patient's face has a characteristic expression of anxiety. Insomnia is present, with great mental depression, and either moroseness or irritability. Various forms of paralysis eventually develop. The disease may last from ten to fifteen years.
Treatment. Arsenic in some form, form, such as atoxyl (see SLEEPING SICKNESS) is the best remedy.