Black Hairy Tongue

Black hairy tongue is a temporary, harmless oral condition that gives the tongue a dark, fury appearance. It is mainly caused by bacteria or fungi in the mouth, which makes the tongue black and hairy.

Symptoms: Some even feel tickling on the roof, nausea, metallic taste and even bad breath.

Treatment: Maintenance of proper oral hygiene by brushing twice a day. Drinking plenty of water and taking roughage food.

Black Tongue was epidemic in the South and Congress legislated an investigation. That year, 551 deaths from the disease were recorded in North Carolina; in 1915 the state's death toll rose to 831. Wide experimentation in 1915, typically on prison and asylum inmates and orphan children, revealed to federal public health professional Joseph Goldberger that certain foods cured pellagra, although the simple niacin compound was not identified as the agent until 1937. Annual deaths in the state peaked at 1,015 in 1930. The yearly total stayed well into the hundreds through the Depression and beyond; it did not fall to double digits until 1944. The first year that the state recorded no Black Tongue deaths was 1960. The discovery of vitamins and their nutritional roles began the disease's rapid decline; in modern times it has been almost unknown in the United States.