Modern knowledge of the etiology of scurvy dates from the discovery by Hoist and Froelich of the University of Christiania in 1912 (7) that guinea pigs readily develop the disease when confined to a diet of cereals or of bread. These investigators pointed out that the syndrome thus produced was the analogue of scurvy in man, and was characterized by loosening of the teeth, inflammation of the gums, hemorrhages in the joints, decalcification of the epiphyses of the long bones, and the typical histological picture of the bone marrow. They observed that exclusive feeding of guinea pigs with carrots, turnips or dandelion did not lead to this pathological condition, although animals on these foods suffered comparable losses in weight (30-40 per cent). They found that the introduction of small amounts of fresh cabbage or carrots or other fresh vegetables could effect a cure of animals suffering from the disease. They drew the conclusion, which later investigators have abundantly confirmed, that the cause of scurvy lay in the absence of a certain chemical substance from the "scorbutic" diets. They were able to show that the anti-scorbutic substance is readily destroyed by cooking or drying.

The first to observe the development of scurvy in guinea pigs as the result of restriction to a faulty diet was Theobald Smith (8) of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. In 1895 he described this condition as being induced by limiting these animals to a diet of oats and bran. This chance observation was not followed up by a detailed study, and it remained unnoticed for more than twenty years.