| Abstract
| - Abstract. 1. 1. Diets deficient in calories, protein and the vitamin B complex and other constituents produce a common syndrome of malnutrition in African adults and children. 2. 2. The syndrome manifests itself as a failure of growth, or loss of weight, oedema, a gastro-intestinal defect, changes in the skin and hair, anaemia, a fatty liver, and slight neurological signs. 3. 3. Detailed observations are offered of the failure to digest food, of the deficiency bowel pattern, of the lowered plasma albumin and the raised plasma globulin, and of two autopsies. 4. 4. This syndrome appeared to be distinct from pellagra and nutritional oedema, it is very resistant to any improvement in the diet and to supplements of all the common vitamins, and the disease has a high mortality. 5. 5. No satisfactory name has been proposed for this syndrome. Although “kwashiorkor” holds pride of place, as a description of the red-haired African babies, it has been proposed that it should be called “malignant malnutrition” (Trowell 1944.
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