It is now well established that diet, according to its qualitative and quantitative nature, plays a most important part in the prevention, causation and cure of pellagra. Certain types of diet have been proved experimentally to be provocative of pellagra,1 while in the Pellagra Hospital the treatment of the disease has been absolutely dietary.
Considering the part that diet, good or bad as the case may be, plays in pellagra, it would seem that whatever new facts are added to our knowledge of metabolism in pellagra would decidedly be worth while, particularly in view of the fact that the investigations of metabolism in this disease have not been extensive.
Camurri appears to be the first to have made a comprehensive study of metabolism2 in pellagra. His work dealt particularly with the mineral metabolism. He states that the diet of the Italian pellagrins is lacking in sodium and calcium. Camurri's work