Asylum Doctor | Book Signing with Dr. Charles S. Bryan

Join us in the Carriage House at Robert Mills for a book signing and special presentation by Dr. Charles Bryan discussing the highlights of his new book, Asylum Doctor: James Woods Babcock and the Red Plague of Pellagra, as well as information he uncovered during his research. This book signing is free, but registration is requested.

Asylum Doctor is a biography of an unsung South Carolinian's role in responding to a deadly scourge, told against the backdrop of mental health history. During the early twentieth century thousands of Americans died of pellagra before the cause—vitamin B3 deficiency—was identified. Credit for ending the scourge is usually given to Dr. Joseph Goldberger of the U.S. Public Health Service, who proved the case for dietary deficiency during 1914–1915 and spent the rest of his life combating those who refused to accept Southern poverty as the root cause. Charles S. Bryan demonstrates that between 1907 and 1914 a patchwork coalition of American asylum superintendents, local health officials, and practicing physicians developed a competence in pellagra, sifted through hypotheses, and set the stage for Goldberger's epic campaign.

Asylum Doctor describes the plight of the mentally ill during an era when public asylums had devolved into convenient places to warehouse inconvenient people. It is the story of an idealistic humanitarian who faced conditions most people would find intolerable. And it is important social history for, as this book's epigraph puts it, "in many ways the Old South died with the passing of pellagra."

Charles S. Bryan is the Heyward Gibbes Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine Emeritus at the University of South Carolina. His extensive publications deal mainly with infectious diseases, medical history, and medical biography. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a recipient of the Order of the Palmetto.