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AWFUL DISEASE Pellagra is Spreading Rapidly Through the Sooth and West. NEW MENACE TO AMERICA Mcdicul Science Is Working to Discover the Secret of the Terrible IMague That Has Invaded tin* United States and Which is Caused by Eating Corn. Appearance in the United States of that mysterious disease, pellagra, practically a ne* and hitherto unfamiliar kind of leprosy, and which, though introduced but recently, is spreading with great rapidity, may well excite alarm, says Itene liache In the New York American. It is a disease,among the most frightful known to mankind?which already claims about one million victims, now surviving, in the Old World. Over there it pursues, in nearly all instances, a slow course, killing the sufferers very gradually. Hut in this country it becomes unique swift destroyer, the t\ 11 VI IO V71 VVI? ?% ? symptoms being "telescoped,'' as one might say, so that the whole course of the malady may be run within a few weeks, terminating in death. To call it a "new brand of leprosy" is by no means inappropriate, lint, in truth, it is worse?much worse. Not only does it transform the skin of the body in to a yellow and parchment-like covering, cracked and beset with foul and ulcerous sores, but it direetly assails the temple of the mind, reducing the patient to a condition of insanity or idiocy. Until recently the disease, its name compounded from two Italian words, "pelle," skin, and "agra," rough?has been regarded as peculiar to the Old Wonldy, though a few sporadic cases of it have appeared from time to time in Mexico and South America. Suddenly and unexpectedly it invaded the United States?the first sickness of the kind being reported only a few years ago in Georgia. Now quite as suddenly it has spread throughout most of the Southern States and, worse / still, because of the difference in climate, it has attacked the Middle West. Fifty cases have been found at the Peoria, Illinois, State Hospital alone, and Captain Joseph F. Siler, of the Army Medical Corps, sent there to investigate, has reported to the government that he believes the malady has long prevailed, n^t only around Peoria, but throughout Illinois and the great corn growing States of the West. For it is in corn that the cause of the disease, whatever it may be, j lurks. The malady is neither contagious nor infectious. That is to say, one person cannot "catch it" or "take it" from another. Each individual case originates from the moldy corn direct. In all likelihood, the mis chief-making fungus starts its work in the cornfield, where its spones fall upon the ripening ears and grow. Hut even this is not a certainty. It may be asked, why does not cooking kill the fungus germs? So in all likelihood it does. But the ^ poison manufactured by the fungus is what makes the trouble, and apparently this is not deprived of its toxic efficiency by high temperatures. That boiling does not render it harmless is shown by the fact, already mentioned, that alcohol distilled from spoiled maize will cause the disease. The spores of the fungus start colonies in the intestine, and the poison they produce is taken up by blood and thus carried to all parts of the body. It is in effect a drug, particularly injurious to the brain and nervous system generally? whence the profound effect of the disease upon the mentality. This effect, like the purely physical symptoms, is progressive, and frequently terminates in idiocy or Insanity. When it is said that the disease is due to something in moldy or musty corn nearly all has been said that is really known of the cause. It is true that at the Meridian Hospital, in Mississippi, a new and unknown bacillus has 'been isolated after investigation into a number of cases ot the disease, but whether this is the real microbe of pellagra, whether thero is a microbe or whether the malady is due to some vegetable growth that enters the hlonrl fhmno-H V... VUQM VHU VU1 ll| IO not actually known. Nor is it likely that an effective remedy will he found until the cause is definitely ascertained. The Italian y theory, and the one commonly accepted, is that it is caused by "a fungus parasitic on maize or by a ptomaine developed by its petrifaction." Fungus and ptomaine remain to be discovered. Nobody that has ever handled corn can have failed to notice that occasional ears are moldy. Perhaps only a few of the grains are affected, and, as a matter of fact, these are removed in process of preparation for the table; or, if the grain be Ha, - ' - shelled by hand, only the good part Is taken for the bin. This, in the latter case, is a precaution obviously necessary, inasmuch us a small amouut of moldy corn may do a great deal of damage in the bin, through the spreading of the fungus. It Is in the Southern State's and In the Middle West that the bulk of the cornmeal output is consumed. Oomparativly little of it is eaten in other parts of this country. Formerly, in both sections, the supply of corn meal came entirely from small local mills, the grain for which was "shucked" by hand. For this reason none of it was moldy; and consequently the ilour made from it was wholesome, containing no disease germs. Those who ate it were safe from "pellagra." Today, however, there is a very different state of affairs. The South has given up growing corn on any extensive scale, and is planting cotton instead. Hut the people of that section are still eating as much corn meal as ever, obtaining the product Vw* ...I.- H l - 1 - ? ? iwiii ui<; 1^1 ui 1111 wntsrtj 11 is iiiilllG ill great mills in Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati and other cities, by machinery. The ears are "shucked' by machinery, which pays no attention to bad ones, and throws the moldy grain in with the rest, to be afterwards ground. Formerly the corn used for making meal in the South was never kept in big bulks. Today, on the other hand, it is customarily handled in enormous bulks?600 bushels to a car, and thousands of bushels in one bin. Under such conditions, especially if any moisture be present, the mass is liable to "heat," and the fungus from the moldy grain spreads with great rapidity. Thus is may be taken for granted that the cornmeal which comes to market nowadays is more or loss liable to be infected with fungus. No wonder then, that in the States where cornmeal is a large item of the daily diet a disease positively known to arise from the' eating of moldy corn should have made its appearance. It is by no means to be supposed that the fugi which attack corn are all of them, or even most of them, dangerous. Presumably, they are, as a rule, quite harmless. Hut among them there must be some species of a "pathogenic" character, which produces the disease known as pellagra. When sufferers from the malady in its early stages are deprived of corn, and fed on other grain, the symptoms disappear. Summed up, the symptoms comprise progressive emaciation, brittleness of the hones, fatty degeneration of the internal organs (especially the heart, liver, kidneys, spleen and lungs), inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, nervous troubles and the frightful affection of the skin already mentioned. These conditions become progressively worse. There are evidences of mental weakness, with great depression of spirit. Children are sad of face and look like old men or women. Young women rapidly take on the aspect of ancients. Emaciation sets in, with increased physical weakness. The skin becomes red, with sensations of burning and itching, and usually some pufliness. Blisters appear, scattered over the surface; the spidermls dries and falls in grayish scales. Later on the skin becomes thickened and of a dirty yellow or yellowish-green color hard and rough, with painful crack? and crusts, or even ulcerations. Finally, it becomes parchment-like, with entire loss of elastic!iy. The condition, in a word, so far as this feature of the complaint is concerned, is what a layman would describe as leprous. It is not leprosy, however. A suggestion has been made to the effect that the leprosy described in the Bible was actually pellagra, but there is no reason for such a theory. Undoubtedly pellagra is a modern disease, corn having been unknown in ancient times. Maize, of course, is of American origin, and it is safe to say that the Indians, who were large users of forn meal long before the days of Columbus did not use moldy grain in its manufacture. Jn the later stages of the malady, sufferers become either partly imbecile or deranged. Sometimes they entertain delusions of persecution or of religion. Melancholia leads to dementia, and they try to commit suicide, or in some instances exhibit a homicidal tendency. Not infrequently they refuse food. Their heads tremble and their gait is paralytic. Last scene of all Is a combination of starvation, helplessness, heart weakness, dropsy and delirium, ending in death. Occasionally blood Dfliofttiln" ui even galloping consumption of the lungs, sets In at the close. Pictures have boon sent to Dr. Rile Metchnikoff, the famous Russian scientist who is now studying it. It Is also under investigation at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. Such is pellagra?certainly one of the most frightful physical afflictions known to mankind. Another Terrible Flood. Another terrible flood has visited the Jamillepec district in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Sugar planta-! tions and mills have been destroyed,1 hundreds of head of cattle have been killed and scores of farm laborers have lost their lives In the water. | SHOW LARGE GAINS POSTAL STATISTICS SHOW PHOCK ESS IX MAXV TOWNS. i South Carolina Compares Well With ! All Sections of tin* liiited Strifes in Thrift. Figures that are now being prepared in the office of the auditor of j the postofiice department in Washington reveal an interesting story of the commercial growth and development of the various towns in South Carolina during the last twelve months. These tigures, based upon reports from the |>ostmasters in different parts of the State, are due to reach the auditor's office soon after the close of each' fiscal i year on June 30. but as may be expected there are many delays in such matters, consequently this year it will i?e several weeks before complete returns are available. Enough information, however, has been received to indicate in the clearest possible manner that when ' lull returns ar?j made South Carolina will make as good a showing as any State in the I'nion, with the exception of Texas, Oklahoma and some parts of the far West, where towns of a.000 or lu.000 inhabitants sometimes spring up over night. The latu r, however, are not counted by the postoflice department as | good evidence of the real growth j of the country, for the reason that > they are just as liable to disappear suddenly with the discovery of gold o'* some other precious metal somewhere else as they are to be put iu full blast net wen >uns. Inquiry of the postoflice department officials shows th.it during the last year the towns and cities in South Carolina that have probably made the most noted progress are, in the upper part of the State; I Spartanburg, Greenville, Anderson and Greenwood. Of these four it is probable that Spartanburg is in tlie lead, and that when the returns are in it will be se*'n that she has made a slight advancement over the three other places. In the Piedmont section there are several smaller mill towns, like Gaffney, Piedmont and Pelzer. that have also made excellent returns and have made substantial headway. Laurens and 1'nion have about held their former positions. Further down the State Newberry has made a small gain, as is the case with Columbia, though in the latter case the increase will not be so marked a- in the smaller towns. J Postal receipts in Orangeburg and Sumter have probably been considerably increased during the last twelve months, and Florence has also made substantial headway. In the Pee Dee section. Darlington and Marion have made good records, and the race between the other towns in that of the State for the lead in increased postal business is a close one. An interesting feature in connection with these figures is that the smaller towns in the State have probably made larger increases with respect to their relative population than the larger places, Indicating that iiianv nersons un, w M w M? Wlli" ing to the former from the country, because of the new cotton mills being constantly erected. These figures, however, do not take into account the large increases at the various mill towns in the State, where there are only one or two factories, because figures for these offices are not obtainable. If they could be secured they would make a most interesting story of the commercial growth and prosperity of the small towns. FATAL 'SQFITO BITE. Causes Blond I'oison Which Causes Death of a I>ad. Six-year-old Freddie LJmburger of 141 Terrace place, Westchester, N. J J., died Friday of blood poisoning brought on from scratching mosquito bites on his legs. Going out into the woods to gather flowers the first ( of the month, Freddie was terribly bitten bv mosquitoes. Me kept scratching himself with his finger nailes and on September 3 it became necessary to call Dr. W. C. ( Doming of St. Raymonds avenue, Westchester. One leg began to swell and it was soon apparent that blood poisoning had set in. Child Killed hy Train. A nnU T>~11 * * - ~ " nt-ii ivitinsay, aged 13, while I on her way to the Laurens cotton i ( mills at 6 o'clock Saturday morning, was run over and fatally injured by a detached string of flat cars on I the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens railroad, death ensuing one hour later. She was walking on the track and being partially deaf did not hear the approaching train behind her in time to escape. CJot. the Cash. At Neosho Falls, Kansas, three robbers Friday dynamited the safe of the Neosho Falls State bank and and escaped with $3,000 in cash. The'robbers exchanged shots with the city marshal. ? ^.. * u. >4K Jfc. LEAP TO ESCAPE FLAMES HVX1>KEI> HAVE CLOSE CALL WHEN HOTEL IllKNED. Entire Ci round Floor is Abliue When Fhunes Art* Discovered ? None Hurt Seriously in Jumping. A dispatch from Edgemere, Long Island, says in a lire which destroyed the Ilolmeshurst Inn there before daylight Monday morning seventylive guests and twenty employees experienced exciting and narrow es capes. The fire, which the proprietor said, was of incendiary origin, stalled in the basement and worked op through tlie frame structure so rapidly that the entire first floor was ablaze before the guests were given the alarm. While most of the guests were able to leave by stairways, half a dozen, among them two women, leaped from a second-story balcony, but were not seriously hurt. The guests were cared for in T1 ? i l? h 1r> II \r i.nltfiunu 'P?. , .0.. n>?/> wi lu^uo, i IIU IIUU'I building was valued at $7T>,000. William Holmes, son of the owner, ran to his mother's room on the second lloor and found his escape cut off by a wall of llamos. They were forced to jump, hut were not hurt. An elevator hoy ran his car until the flames stopped the car. MKTIIOI) TO >1A It KMT CIlOl'. New Orleans Cotton Dealer lias New Clan. A dispatch from New Orleans says \V. 13. Thompson, president of the New Orleans cotton exchange and head of the cotton firm of W. 11. Thompson & Co., of that city, has issued a circular letter to farmers, wherein he offers a new plan for the marketing of the cotton crop. He urges farmers to market their ! crops at the rate of 10 per cent a month. According to Mr. Thompson this would create a stable market i for both buyer and sel.or. Mr. Thompson says in part: "Let the producer of cotton market 10 per cent of his crop each' month for 10 months. An instant of reflection will convince any thoughtful man that whether the! . iwi# 1111 imc niHi Kei i?e large or small and whether a hundred planters or a hundred thousand employ the method, the result will he better than if the crop were sold at once or the attempt made to hold it all. If the plan is good for one planter, it is good for all, and if all or any great number of planters adopt it, the problem of marketing the crop is solved." WANTS HIS MOCK It HO K ION. A White Fiend Attacks a Young Negro (iirl Twice. A special to The News and Courier from Spartanburg says an unknown white man attempted to make a criminal assault on a young colored ,,1-1 - 4 * * ' ^ kiii ai imjsi Spartanburg Saturday afternoon. Me was caught by the father of the girl and given a severe whipping and then released and told to leave the country. It is said that this is the sTcoud attempt of the kind by the man, and the white people of the community regret that the girl's father let him get away, claiming that he should have been turned over to the authorities. The assault caused the report to be circulated in the city that a race riot was on, and the deputy sheriff and a large crowd of citizens hurried out to East Spartanburg to prevent trouble. Killed by lightning. The Suinter Watchman and Southren says: "Simon Mickens and another negro man were killed by lightning Friday afternnoon while riding on a wagon load of cotton, which was being carried from the field to the gin house on the farm of Mr. T. II. Clarke, near Mechanicsville. Another negro who was lying between the two, who were killed was shocked and burned but escaped serious injury. Two white boys, tne sons of Mr. Ilradley, who were rid iiik on ine wagon escaped unhurt." Negro Proves ? Hero. At Atlanta, Ga., the home of S. \V. Bailey, with its contents, was destroyed by fire Saturday, the roof falling when the fire was first discovered. The family of Mr. Railey barely escaped in their night robes. After the roof began crumbling, Mary, the six-year-old daughter, was rescued by the daring bravery of VVeldon Wray, colored. The Deadly Auto. Harry L. Buckley, a newspaper man of Philadelphia, Pa., who was carrying a message from President Taft to Seattle in a relay automobile race, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Press, was killed Saturday afternoon when the automobile in which he was speeding was wrecked near Lebanon. Pa. The race has been abandoned. I PELLAGRA DISEASE SAI l> TO IlK l Al SlOI) IIY THE I HE OF WESTERN UltOWN <X)RN II is ('laimi'd That This Corn Hun Not Time to Mature Well Before it is (around. Thn Hrnnil nou' /llenat a til x ??\l AM V *" VHP' H'V ? II I\ II III ^ L made its appearance in the South several years ago, has Invaded several parts of the North. Fifty eases are now under treatment in Peoria, 111. It has probatdy existed undetected in the North many years. Dr. Lavindar of the L'nited States marine hospital service, has proved that pellagra caused the death of two patients who were supposed to have been scalded to death in the liarton villo, Illinois, insane asylum in 1904 and 1907. They died in bath tubs and then bodies looked like they had been boiled and the nurse who was in charge of the last case was dismissed for supposed criminal carelessness. Dr. Lavindar says t lie appearance of being boiled alive is typical of the (iisease of pellagra and that death I in the bath tubs was a mere concidence. The result is that the nurse has been reinstated. Dr. Lavindar found forty cases in this asylum on i his arrlva 1 there. The Knoxville Sentinel, referring | to the theory that mu>ty corn causes I pellagra, expressed the belief some time ago that the spread of the disease was due to the use of carelessly selected corn ground by steam rolling mills instead of the coarse ground corn meal of water nulls of the South. The view has been growing in strength. Dr. William T Woodley, of Charlotte, N. ('., has written The Observer on this subject. He blames the use of shock cured corn which, he says. is not given time enough to dry thoroughly before it is husked and marketed. lie savs that sixty days longer should be allowed to corn in the . W 1- A I Mionv man to corn standing in the field. The season in the West is much shorter than in the South and the fanners push their work so as to get through with cleaning itheir fields before winter. Dr. Woodley | proposes, therefore, that mills be required to use only corn that has been cured under supervision. Corn for the table should he cured without stripping the fodder in order to give the ears all the nutriment possible. The amount of corn ground 1 for human food is small compared with the total grown and it would he no great hardship to require the mills to he careful in selecting it. In commenting on the rapid spread of the disease, the Farmers' Union St?n says here in the South, whose people have always been addicted to the use of corn-bread in some form or other, pellagra was unknown until comparatively recent years. Before the war and long afterwards, we never knew or heard of a case that indicated any of the symptoms of pellagra. It Is as now known and described a very modern disease so far as it relates to the South, and its present prevalence, If due to the use of corn, may be attributed wholly to the South s abandonment of the cultivation of corn, turning its attention to the single crop of cotton, and ? T' A" j clusively for its corn supply on the West, where the methods of harvest lug and earing for corn crops are such as to make corn an unfit article of food for man. We read the other day that it i* not an unusual thing for some Western farmers to turn the^r hog?into fields of corn which was regarded as of inferior quality. We are confident that much of this kind of corn or the meal from it is shipped to the South and made into ; un-ciu and eaten by the poorer class of our people among whome, especially those in mill districts, pellagra has appeared. We don't believe that Southern raised corn, harvested only when fully ripe, as was done in antebellum times, and properly ground into meal, will produce pellagra. If the disease is caused from corn, i it is this Western corn and its proj duets on which our people have been I feeding ever since they got the eoti ton craze. Pellagra, then, which is said to be spreading rapidly throughout the South, is going to compel our people to go back to first principles, in other words, force them to cut out Western corn and raise their corn supply at home, it seems that something just like this was required to bring Southern farmers to their I : senses. Some people can be convinced only by knock-down arguments, and pellagra is one that seems to be of Unit kind. The Sun is right, (torn has been the staple food of the South too j long to allow any room for condemning it wholesale as has been done by hasty thinkers. But it was home-grown corn that was eaten and home-ground, too, until a few years ago when the markets of the South were Invaded by the products of tho steam rolling mill. The housekeepers who insist on getting the coarso meal of the local mill will probably make no mistake and may rest assured that they are eating one of the finest food-stuffs given GOODS SEIZED" I Peary's Boatswain Confirms Cook'* Stale- I ment of the Looting of His Stores. H PEARY BADLY EQUIPPED I Ih*. <V?ob'?< aim) FrankoN Collection I of Holies Were Taken by Peary?* I Admiral Srhley Fudoises l)r. Fooh I a.s Does Capt. Osboiu, Secretary of . H the At t ic < 'bib. 9 a dis natch from si# i!?>?>?'a vj ^ says Alan \vhi?ton, who was boat- H swain <?f the Peary auxialiary i team- H er Erik in i<H>r. and again in 1908, I adds his quota to the polar contro*4 I versy. On his expeditions ho saw I much of Peary and kn? w of Peary's plans. He was also on the Erik in the summer of 1907 when she lay M for a week in Sydney alongside the M schooned Jno. H. Dradley, in whlo.h I Dr. Cook was starting for the pole. I Whitten says that the liradley was I abundantly equipped for Cook's e*- I peditlon, having supplies-, for at least I three years, lie eon firms the charges I maile hy Dr. Cook at Copenhagen hat Peary's people took Dr. Cook's provisions, adding that not only did the crew of the ship take (,'ook'f stores at Etnh, hut that boats were sent to Annatok, thirty miles distant, to remove Cook's provisions which were stored there. Whitten admitted however that he did not know if this removal was hy arrangement between Frank e, who was left in charge of the provisions and Peary or Peary's representatives. The boatswain also made tho statement that both FTanke's and I Cook's collections of ivory and skins, | some of them very valuable, likewise were taken. He said that the trouble with Peary's previous expeditions had been the lack of supplies. Instead of remaining away for three wars, Commander Peary was compelled to return after about fifteen 11miiii nst ir>?' r?>ai reason, Whitten declared, that he did not have enough supplies to remain longer. Naval Ollieers Cndorso Cook. A dispatch from New York says previous assumption that Commander Peary would have the United States Navy solidly behind him was not borne out in a letter from Rear ' Admiral Schley, made public by ('apt. R. S. Oshorn, secretary of the Artie Club of America, of which l)r Cook is a member. The letter under date of September 1 I from Pocono Manor, Pa., runs in part as follows: "I like Cook's attitudo immensely In this unfortunate, unnecessary and unwise controversy. He certainly has been dignified and manly in the stand he has taken in this matter. Capt. Osborn followed up hi> letter from the admiral with a lecture on "Who Discovered the Noith Pole?" "Dr. Frederick A. Cook." he said, "was for two years my wife's physician. I saw him two or three times a we?.-k and we chatted many hours. If 1 have ever known a man of integrity, probity, sincerity and modesty, it is Cook. "I have known also the other man ? known him to depart from truth by larvro mari/in* " Ft is now admitted by Peary himself, that only one Esqulno was at the pole with him. Cook had three with him. SOME TIMELY HINTS. How Merchant*) Can Make Advertising Win lltisiness. One principal of successful advertising, as practised by department stores ad writers and other specialists on publicity, is to give definite descriptions of goods offered. When a merchant uses such phases as "The best is the cheapest" and "Higgest assortment and lowest prices," he convinces no one. The reader argues that anyone can use these catch words and that they prove nothing. Try instead to help your readers get, a mental picture of your goods. For this purpose try definite and detailed. though very brief description. (Jet manufacturers of your lines to give you some definite facts about how the goods are put together, so | that you can irivn v/so.1 ? D. . , ..w.lir I I'ilMUlS why goods are superior. Pick out, some special bargains, describe them as above indicated, and put in the price and the real value you believe them to have. Don't bother about flowery language. What the buyer wants is cold tacts. "Reason why" advertising is what tilings the buyer around. Prices are the best argument of all. Oftentimes all that is desirable is a word or two of description, with price and real value In cold type. Orangeburg merchants can double their values by judicious, persistent advertising in the local newspapers. They should try It. by God. In the meantime there is no subject more urgent for the attention the pure food experts than the corn meal on the market. |M| ?????