Pellagra Investigation Committee

The Pellagra Investigation Committee was established in 1910, owing to the spread of the disease Pellagra (an ailment of the skin), in several parts of the British Empire and the uncertainty surrounding causation. It was decided that a scientific enquiry should be made into the etiology of pellagra. The Committee consisted of representatives from London School of Tropical Medicine, notably including James Cantlie, Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Committee and C W Daniels, Director of the School and other academic and prominent individuals including San Giuliano, Italian Ambassador; Professor William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford University and Dr Dawson Williams, editor of the British Medical Journal. An additional Advisory Sub-Committee was formed of members including Professor Ronald Ross, Professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Liverpool; Sir Patrick Manson, Medical Advisor to the Colonial Office and E E Austen, Department of Zoology, British Museum.

The Committee intended to raise a fund of £1000 to pay expenses for Dr Louis Sambon, Lecturer at London School of Tropical Medicine, to travel to a pellagrous area to study the topographical distribution and epidemiology of the disease. Sambon intended to discover whether a connection existed between the disease and the sand fly (Simulium) by studying the disease in the lower animals and man, establishing whether pellagra could be defined as belonging to the group of protozoal diseases.

On 20th March 1910 Sambon travelled to Italy. Much work was carried out in an attempt to gain the funds needed to complete research, as at the time of Sambon's departure only a fifth of the necessary funds had been raised and more was needed in order to facilitate the completion of his investigations. Whilst in Italy, Sambon established that, contrary to previous theories surrounding pellagra, its spread was not caused by mouldy maize but rather transmitted via a bite to the human from a gnat (simulium vorans).