Curative Treatment of Lathyrism, a Disease of the Nervous System

In vast areas of India including Bhopal, a disease prevails named ' lathyrism ', the symptoms of which are identical with those of spastic spinal sclerosis. While for the latter disease we have no answer even to the question, whether exogene or endogene causes are responsible, we know in the case of lathyrism beyond any doubt that an exogene agent is the sole cause of it, namely the seed of Lathyrus sativus. In this part of India, we have come across no case of lathyrism which has been contracted without the consumption of Lathyrus as staple food for a period of at least a few months. There is no cure for spastic spinal sclerosis (Beaumont, 1942; Price, 1941), nor for lathyrism. In a recent review on all that is known of lathyrism, Shourie (1945) writes : 'As far as at present known, the nervous lesions are permanent and the disease incurable.' For lathyrism we have, however, found a drug which has definite curative properties. Acetylcholine is a kind of hormone (Loewi) present in the human body and plays the most important role in the transmission of the nerve impulses. Under normal conditions, acetylcholine is destroyed by cholinesterase only when it has served its purpose. We know, however, a pathological condition (myasthenia gravis) in which it has been assumed that either an unbalance between production of acetylcholine and its destruction by cholinesterase exists (McGeorge, 1937) and