In 1913, Joseph Goldberger, United States Public Health Department Surgeon, received a letter from his Surgeon General which starts with these words, "Within the past several weeks, the importance of pellagra has been urged on me by members of Congress and other prominent people from sections in which the disease prevails. It is undoubtedly one of the knottiest and most urgent problems facing the service at the present time." The letter goes on to assign him the job of finding a solution to this major public health problem. With the help of his associates, Wheeler, Sydenstriker, Lillie, and Sebrell, he accomplished his task by 1929. In the book Goldberger on Pellagra, editor Milton Terris has republished Goldberger's major papers which define the problems, state the observed facts, and test the hypotheses derived from these observations that dietary deficiency rather than communicable infection is the cause of the disease. Subsequent papers