in Texas. He contracted but survived each of these diseases while earning a
reputation for professional directness, modesty, patience, and remarkable
powers of listening and observation.^7
Between and the early s, Goldberger either invented or con-
fronted a string of hypotheses on the source(s) of pellagra, then tested each.
Among the first was the theory that dietwithin institutionscaused pella-
gra, since the illness was first confirmed at a hospital for the insane, then
at similar institutions in other southern states, and in orphanages. Told
that nurses and kitchen staff ate the same food as inmates or patients,
Goldberger noticed that not a single staff member suffered from pellagra.
Certainly they had other food sources, away from institutions, but Gold-
berger insisted on watching everyone eat. Observation confirmed his sus-
picion that staffs ate first and took better portions for themselves. Like-
wise, patients not suffering from pellagra and those in the early stages
took food from the plates of advanced pellagrins, who were weak, despon-
dent, and compliant. Goldberger found federal funds to supplement in-
stitutional food with milk, eggs, beans, peas, and fresh meat and ensured
that every patient received appropriate portions. Nearly all who consumed
these foods improved; some walked out of hospitals in good health within
a few weeks. A bit later Goldberger conducted an experiment by supple-
menting diets with legumes alone—here was a cheaper, more accessible
theoretical treatment. Once more he was successful, and he wrote exuber-
antly to Mary, ‘‘It seems probable that pellagra can be wiped out in our
South by simply getting the people to eat beans, Beans, BEAns, BEANs, and
BEANS!!!’’^8 Two of the Mesoamerican triad’s three legs would do, of course,
although neither Goldberger nor any other researcher yet knew just why.
Next, and most famously, Goldberger tested the germ hypothesis. Hav-
ing already observed that professional staff and institutional food and
cleaning workers among pellagrins virtually never had pellagra themselves,
he was confident that volunteers who ingested pellagrins’ skin scales, nasal
mucous, urine, and feces or who submitted to muscle injections of pella-
grins’ blood would not come down with the illness. So in Goldberger
organized what he called ‘‘filth parties’’ for sixteen volunteer subjects, in-
cluding himself and his wife. (The others were principally medical people
scattered between New Orleans and Washington, D.C.) Goldberger injected
himself with a sufferer’s blood as well as swallowing a fat ‘‘pill’’ containing
wastes. Like the other volunteers, he felt pain in the tissue the needle pene-
trated, and he suffered bowel disorders for a while after taking the filthy