SCXT 320 Science and Racial Prejudice

Consequences of Eugenics
The Contested Etiology of Pellagra

Pellagra

• described in 1753 by a Spanish physician asmal de la rosa, "a kind of leprosy," caused by humid air, foul wind, and faulty diet.
• identified in 1771 by a Milan physician as pellagra (angry skin) and thought to be caused by the action of sun on skin.
• affected the very poor in both countries.
• symptoms began with a pattern of skin eruptions followed by diarrhea, lassitude, dizziness, and a variety of mental disorders. 

Thesis: eugenic beliefs in the hereditary susceptibility of "weaker stock" to this disease unnecessarily prevented the development of effective treatment for pellagra for at least two decades (1915-1935), resulting in unnecessary debilitation and death.