Scurry is a disease that was common enough at one time among sailors, and often enough breaks out even to-day in famine-stricken districts. The symptoms may best be described by quoting Stefanson, the explorer. In speaking of several members of his arctic crew who contracted scurvy during 1916-1917, he says: "Anderson complained to me of having been gradually becoming more and more unwell for a week or two. The first symptom noted by him was dizziness on suddenly standing up, 'laziness,' gloom and irritability, showing itself in a tendency to condemnatory and uncalled-for argumentativeness, proneness to becoming tired, and loosening of the teeth and a swelling and recession of the gums, with a dull local ache in the gums or roots of the teeth. The appetite was normal both as to quality and kind of food desired. . . . Noice had become unable to walk and had to be hauled on the sleds; Knight was able to walk, but was getting weaker and more wretched. .. . At this time the teeth of the men were so loose that they could be plucked out with the fingers with no effort, and the gums were of such a cheese-like consistency, that they were cut (with little bleeding) by wooden toothpicks about as easily as ordinary 'American' cheese could be. Every joint was sore and all movements painful. . . ." The spongy condition of the gums and the looseness of the teeth are often characteristic symptoms.

This disease, so common among sailors in days past that it was called the "calamity of sailors," is met with to-day only in famine-stricken countries, or among children living on a restricted diet. The devastation following the wake of the Great War has brought many cases of scurvy to the notice of medical men.

Scurvy A Disease Due To Vitamine Deficiency

Whatever doubt there may be regarding the relationship of vitamines to rickets, there is no doubt whatsoever that scurvy is a disease due to vitamine deficiency. Dr. Funk was among the first to advocate such a view, and subsequent work by many investigators has but strengthened it.

Water-Soluble C Vitamine

As we shall show, the vitamine, the absence of which gives rise to scurvy, is neither fat-soluble A nor water-soluble B. It is a third one of the substances belonging to the group of vitamines, which we shall call water-soluble C to distinguish it from the other two. Since water-soluble C cures scurvy, it is called the antiscorbutic vitamine, to distinguish it from the antineuritic vitamine which cures beriberi, and the antirachitic vitamine which is probably responsible for the cure of rickets.

For experimental purposes, guinea pigs are always used in work on scurvy. Rats cannot be used since, though they may suffer from a lack of vitamine C, they do not develop scurvy. You will remember that in studying beriberi, birds, particularly pigeons, were found useful. Rats can also be employed. Dogs can be used in experiments on rickets.

History Of The Disease

The history of scurvy has elements of unusual interest. Chroniclers tell us how it attacked the Crusaders while in Palestine, and subsequent historians have seldom failed to record the ravages this disease wrought in the army of emperors. But one of the earliest detailed accounts of the disease, as well as an account of how to cure it, is to be found in the descriptions by Captain Cook, the famous voyager. Writing in the London Philosophical Transactions for 1776 on "The Method Taken for Preserving the Health of the Crew of His Majesty's Ship the 'Resolution' During Her Late Voyage Round the World," Captain Cook says: "We came to few places where either the art of man or nature did not afford some sort of refreshment or other, either of the animal or vegetable kind. It was my first care to procure what could be met with of either by every means in my power, and to oblige our people to make use thereof, both by my example and authority; but the benefits arising from such refreshments soon became so obvious, that I had little occasion to employ either the one or the other." This emphasis on fresh food strikes at the very heart of the matter.

Records compiled during the War of Independence for a period of 61/2 years show that there had been some 30,000 cases of scurvy, about 400 of which ended fatally. The cases were very frequent where the ordinary rations were supplemented by dried vegetables. "At posts which could readily be supplied with potatoes only the taint was manifested."

In connection with the use of potatoes as an antiscorbutic, it is instructive to note that among the Irish peasants, where the potato is the main source of food, scurvy invariably makes its appearance after a potato famine.

In the recent war outbreaks of scurvy among the civil and military populations were quite frequent. In Italy and in Russia, and even in France, men and women and children became afflicted. Just at present Vienna presents a pitiable spectacle of the ravages of this disease. But scurvy is but one of several diseases from which the under-fed and badly-fed Viennese are suffering.

Infantile Scurvy

Not only may adults be attacked by scurvy, but so also may children. Infantile scurvy has been so exhaustively investigated by the English physician, Sir Thomas Barlow, that it is commonly known as "Barlow's disease." Much of Barlow's work was done in the early eighties of the last century. Apart from the knowledge we have since gleaned that the causative factor in scurvy is the absence of the antiscorbutic vitamine, Sir Thomas Barlow's description of the disease, as well as the cure for it which he suggested, holds as good to-day as it did forty years ago. In one of his earliest papers Dr. Barlow points out that "prolonged deprivation of fresh vegetables or their equivalent is the most constant fact among the antecedents of the disease; and that uncooked meat and fresh milk are antiscorbutic just like fresh vegetables, though not to the same degree. The further we get from a living food the less is the antiscorbutic power. ... I suppose it will ultimately be found that raw, uncooked milk is better than cooked milk." The last sentence is truly prophetic.