HARDING ASKS FOR QUICK REPORT ON PELLAGRA EPIDEMIC
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On July 25, 1921, President Warren G. Harding asked the Public Health Service and the American Red Cross to make an immediate investigation and report on what could be done about a 'semi-famine' and pellagra* epidemic in the Southern cotton belt.
In a letter addressed to Surgeon General Hugh S. Cumming**, the President wrote that the problems came from "depressed markets...making it impossible to sell cotton."
According to news reports, 100,000 people had been stricken with the disease.
*pellagra is a disease caused by low levels of niacin (B-3). It is marked by dementia, diarrhea & dermatitis. If left untreated, P can be fatal.
**Hugh Smith Cumming (1869-1948) was born in Hampton, VA & earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia. HSM served on immigration duty at Ellis Island, 1906-1909, & at the Hygenic Lab in Washington, D.C. 1913-1919. During WWI, he was sanitary adviser for the US Navy. HSC served as the 5th Surgeon General of the U.S. 1920-1936.
SOURCE
"Harding Orders Quick Action to Check Pellagra," The New York Tribune, July 26, 1921, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
