During the past five years1there have appeared in this clinic seventeen patients, all under 4 years of age (five of them being less than one year old) who have manifested a group of signs and symptoms out of the ordinary. The resemblance of their malady to pellagra was striking, but so many points spoke against such a diagnosis, that it was necessary to think of the presence of some other disease. Extremes in severity of this affection were encountered, depending usually on the duration of the illness, some cases being very mild, others ending in death shortly after admission to the hospital. It is possible, however, that had we then realized the importance of forced feeding as a therapeutic measure, two of the patients who died, might have been saved. CLINICAL PICTURE The disease picture was a complex one, the nervous system and the skin being most involved,