ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, MARY HERRON
Long before there were rumors of COVID parties (decline your invitation), there were actual “filth parties,” and the guest list was exclusive. Joseph Goldberger, an infectious disease expert in the US Public Health Service, was tasked in 1914 with determining the cause of pellagra, a systemic disease known for its four Ds—dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia, and death.
Many physicians at the time believed pellagra stemmed from an unknown germ, but Goldberger felt strongly, correctly, that it was the result of a nutritional deficiency. To prove it, he and his wife Mary held small gatherings during which they and a few brave volunteers injected themselves with the blood of pellagra victims and ate the feces and urine of patients in pill form, what Mary called “the most nauseating diabolical concoctions,” according to a 2014 book detailing Joseph’s work. Goldberger repeated this spectacle multiple times in cities through ...
