Diet and canine hysteria : experimental production by treated flour [preliminary report] / by Sir Edward Mellanby.

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955
Date:
[1946?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Diet and canine hysteria : experimental production by treated flour [preliminary report] / by Sir Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from the British Medical Journal Dec. 14, 1946, vol. ii, p. 885 DIET AND CANINE HYSTERIA EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTION BY TREATED FLOUR* BY Sir EDWARD MELLANBY, K.C.B., M.D., F.R.S. (From the Nutrition Building, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill) During the past twenty years or more dog-owners in this country and in the U.S.A. have been troubled by sporadic outbreaks of a nervous disorder which has been called canine hysteria, running fits, or fright disease. The condition seems to have been noted first in the southern States of the U.S.A. about 1916 and in England about 1924, and to have increased in intensity and distribution since then. Much has been written on the subject, and the disorder has at one time or another been ascribed to many causes. These include internal and external parasites ; deficiency of certain food factors, especially vitamins Bx and A ; deficiency of an amino-acid such as lysine ; excess of proteins ; allergy to food constituents and other sub¬ stances such as pollen ; toxicity of flour from the Far East ; yeast; meat and the method of cooking it; botulism ; infection of a virus type or a complication of distemper ; and, finally, heredity. In recent years, however, the majority of writers seem to have agreed that (1) food is the causal agent, though there is no agreement as to whether the trouble is due to a deficiency in the food or to a toxic agent ; (2) dog-biscuits and proprietary foods are often implicated ; (3) a wheat product is the most likely causal agent in the dog food, including the biscuits ; and (4) excitement and physical strain influence the onset and frequency of the attacks. Canine hysteria up to 1936 has been reviewed and discussed by Hewetson (1936); here, therefore, reference will be confined to some of the experimental investigations on the subject since that date. Melnick and Cowgill (1937) produced convulsive reactions in six adult dogs on diets in which gliadin was the sole protein and furnished 16% or more of the calorie intake. They also suggested that the toxicity of these high-gliadin diets 506/46 * Preliminary report.