TREATMENT OF PERNICIOUS ANEMIA BY A SPECIAL DIET

Abstract
This paper concerns the treatment in a series of forty-five cases of pernicious anemia in which the patients were given a special form of diet. While the problem of diet in the treatment of pernicious anemia is by no means new, in our opinion its possible importance has not heretofore been generally recognized. In 1863, seven years after the publication of Addison's second, but best known, description of the disease now called pernicious anemia, Habershon1wrote concerning this condition: "Many patients at an early stage completely recover under the influence of bracing air and a nutrient and stimulating diet." Other early investigators of the disease, as Biermer2in 1872, and Pepper,3in 1875, appreciated the desirability of prescribing easily digested foods as a form of medication, but no greater emphasis was placed on the value of diet. Osler,4however, in 1885, mentioned that "cases [of pernicious