Failure of nicotinic acid to prevent pellagra-like symptoms in rhesus monkeys, and the successful prevention of rhesus pellagra by a wholly unknown nutritional factor, recently reported by Day,1 Langston2 and others of the University of Arkansas, call attention to the possibility that there may be more than one etiologic type of pellagra. About three years ago the Arkansas biochemists placed monkeys on a presumably adequate diet containing all known vitamins. This diet consisted of a mixture of casein, polished rice, ground whole wheat, cod liver oil, ascorbic acid, salt mixture and sodium chloride. All monkeys fed this diet developed anemia, leukopenia, gingivitis, diarrhea, anorexia and loss of weight. The ulcerations of the gum were apparently identical with the typical oral lesions in human pellagra. Death invariably occurred in from one to three months.
Following the well confirmed successes of nicotinic acid in preventing black tongue in dogs, nutritional