Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat

In 1902, a young man in Georgia displayed symptoms of a disease believed to be nonexistent in the U.S.: pellagra, a deficiency disease. Jarrow unfolds the suspenseful search for a cause of the South's epidemic, as corn fungus, insect- and bird-born parasites, and more were all blamed and rejected. Plentiful archival photos, many of victims, add emotional heft. Reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., glos., ind.

Though barely remembered today, only one hundred years ago pellagra was a fast-growing epidemic, especially in the impoverished American South. This immersive account explains how pellagra became what Surgeon General Rupert Blue called in 1912, “a national calamity.” Numerous anecdotes about pellagra victims, interspersed throughout the broader narrative, provide a sense of immediacy and show how desperate sufferers were for a cure. Period photographs appear on nearly every spread, including many remarkable and sometimes haunting pictures of patients with the disease’s tell-tale rash. The contrast between Dr. Joseph Goldberger’s scientific process and the more popular practices of early-twentieth-century medicine is fascinating. Goldberger’s style of rigorous testing was not yet common, and many doctors experimented on their pellagra patients with potentially harmful treatments, such as injecting arsenic-based drugs. Gail Jarrow connects history with modern day by describing how the results of Goldberger’s research still influence foods made today.