Unquestionably, therefore, numerous investigators, both in Italy and elsewhere, hold fast by one form or other of the _zeist_ theory of the etiology of pellagra, which Lombroso believed himself to have established beyond the possibility of refutation. But during the past year this theory has, nevertheless, been largely discredited. In the _Lancet_ of February 12, 1910, will be found the report of the Pellagra Investigation Commission, in which some of the alternative hypotheses are discussed. Dr. Sambon was despatched by this Commission in charge of the Pellagra Field Commission in Italy, and in an editorial note in the _British Medical Journal_ of May 21, we are told that a telegram had been received from Dr. Sambon, under date of May 13, stating “The Commission has definitely proved that maize is not the cause of pellagra; the parasitic conveyor is the _Simulium reptans_.” It is probable that the matter will soon be definitely settled, and it cannot be denied that pellagra presents many analogies with other endemic disorders due to protozoal infection conveyed by the bite of a blood-sucking insect.—TRANSLATOR. Footnote 46: See the translation of Count Tolstoy’s pamphlet, “The Hanging Czar,” published by the Independent Labour Party.—TRANSLATOR. Footnote 47: In view of this advice, it is interesting to note that I have just received a medical periodical published in the United States, from which I learn that during the winter of 1909–1910 the Romance and Slav population of the towns of the Mississippi States has been extensively ravaged by pellagra. As late as the year 1908, in the great American textbook, Osler’s “Principles and Practice of Medicine,” we learn that pellagra “has not been observed in the United States!” TRANSLATOR’S NOTE.—Dr. Kurella writes to me to the following effect: “I remember twenty-five years ago, in asylums both in Pennsylvania and in Illinois, finding cases of pellagra, with the characteristic skin-lesions, in addition to the mental disorder. But my American colleagues then ridiculed my diagnosis.” Footnote 48: Among other tributes to Lombroso may be mentioned those which he received at the International Congress of Criminal Anthropology, held at Turin in the year 1906. Footnote 49: English translation in Scott’s Contemporary Science Series. Footnote 50: Milan, 1878. A volume of the International Scientific Series. Footnote 51: Pure nominatives, such as anyone could extract from a dictionary in default of all knowledge of the language. Footnote 52: See note to page 152. Footnote 53: _Annales des Sciences Psychiques_, 1904. _Rebman Limited, 129, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W.C._ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES