Pellagra and Pellagrous Insanity During the Long Nineteenth Century

David Gentilcore is Professor of Modern History at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, with particular interests in the social history of medicine and health, and the history of food and diet. Having previously taught at the University of Leicester in the UK, Gentilcore has also held visiting professorships at McMaster University in Canada, Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, in Italy and the Institute of Advanced Studies, Aix-Marseille Université, in France.Egidio Priani is a clinical psychologist based in Italy with a focus on mental distress in young adults, adolescents and their families. Prior to this, he studied at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Centro di Ricerca di Psicoterapia, Trento. From 2006-9 Priani was a research assistant at the historical archives of the former San Servolo psychiatric hospital in Venice, where he carried out research into the history of psychiatry, asylum history and the evolution of diagnostic categories during the nineteenth century.

• 1. Rough Skin: An Introduction.- Part I. Pellagra.- 2. Medical Reactions to a New Disease in the Eighteenth Century.- 3. The Aetiological Turn in the Nineteenth Century.- 4.The Bacteriological Divide: Pellagra in Italy and the United States during the Twentieth Century.- Interlude: Patient Voices.- Part II. Pellagrous Insanity.- 5. Institutionalising Pellagrous Insanity.- 6. Understanding Insanity: Pellagra and General Paralysis of the Insane in Italy and the United Kingdom.- 7. Experiencing the Asylum.- 8. Conclusion: Leaving the Asylum.