This is Goldberger's paper that he wrote after he conducted the prisoner experiment (Goldberger, 1915).
the Experiments
"Goldberger hoped to squelch those reservations by demonstrating the existence of a particular substance that when removed from the diet of healthy individuals resulted in pellagra."
-NIH, 2014
Cornbread, Meat, and Molasses by Sonny Terry (Terry). This is the song sung by prisoners that Dr. Goldberger experimented on. Their diets mainly consisted of cornbread, meat, and molasses which caused pellagra (Middleton, 2008).
Cornbread Meat and Molasses Lyrics
"I don't want no cornbread, meat, molasses. I don't want no cornbread, meat, molasses. I don't want no cornbread, meat, molasses. At supper time, lord, lord lord at supper time. I got a letter, letter from my momma this morning It said come home, lord, lord lord, son come home. I ain't got no, got no ready-made money I can't come home, lord, lord lord, I can't come home. Repeat first verse." |
prisoner experiment
Dr. Goldberger took 12 volunteer men as the experiment group and 20 as the control group for the Rankon State Prison Farm Experiment. The 12 volunteer men who participated in the experiment would be pardoned. The day before the experiment one of the twelve men "was released because of the development of a prostatitis." His goal was to infect the 11 volunteer prisoners with Pellagra which he believed would happen because of a one-sided diet. He also prevented pellagra in the other 20 men by giving them foods higher in vitamins. He gave the 11 prisoners the diet that the southerners normally ate from February 4th - April 19, 1915. Six of the volunteer prisoners ended up with pellagra and none of the prisoners in the control group contracted it (Goldberger, 1915).
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orphanage experiment
Dr. Joseph Goldberger conducted an experiment with two orphanages. One orphanage was given meat, milk, and other foods high in vitamins. The second orphanage was given corn, cornmeal, and other foods low in vitamins. The first orphanage that was given foods high in vitamins did not contract pellagra. The second orphanage that was given foods low in vitamins showed signs of pellagra. This shows that just by changing a diet it is possible to stop, prevent, or contract pellagra.
Dr. Goldberger and his assistant overlooking the Orphanage Experiment (Sharp, 2015).