298 THE VITAMINES 



fresh vegetables, especially when large amounts of meat were not 

 available. Curran (I.e. 781) reported an outbreak of scurvy in 

 Swift Hospital, Dublin, in 1847, among patients eating almost a 

 pound of meat daily, or drinking a half liter of milk, in addition to 

 their usual food. Rae (928) reported that in the Hudson Bay Expe- 

 dition, the natives did not develop scurvy because they ate a large 

 amount of meat per day the men, 8 pounds; the women, 6 pounds, 

 and the children, 2 pounds. Lanceraux (929) reported cases in the 

 prisons of the Department of the Seine arising from a lack of fresh 

 vegetables and potatoes. In Russia, the disease has been prevalent 

 almost at all times, and one of these occurrences has been described 

 by Berthenson (930). Muller (931) observed numerous cases in 

 Niirnberg early in the winter of 1911, arising as a result of a poor 

 harvest. Taussig (932) believed that in Austria, also before the 

 World War, scurvy was not infrequently noted, especially when it 

 was difficult to obtain potatoes. The importance of potatoes as a 

 protective against scurvy is firmly established, and this is also shown 

 by the newest data. In England, especially in 1917, cases of scurvy 

 occurred in poorhouses in Glasgow (Pickens, 933) and in Newcastle 

 (Harlan, 934), which could be attributed to the above cause (lack of 

 potatoes). In a health report of the city of Manchester (935), cases 

 of scurvy were described in the spring of the same year. An article 

 in the British Medical Journal (936) at this time showed the serious 

 situation, and the danger of the substitution of potatoes in the diet 

 by rice and bread. The quantity of potatoes necessary to protect 

 against scurvy, according to the Committee of the English Royal 

 Society (937), is about one pound per day. Hess (I.e. 819) showed 

 the etiological relationship between the occurrence of the disease and 

 the amount of potatoes allotted, in one institution where 200 cases 

 were involved. Lind (938) describes a number of cases in a hospital 

 at Kew, Victoria (Australia), while G. R. Hopkins (939) observed 

 3000 cases in Aruba, a small island in Dutch Guiana, which had a 

 total population of 10,000 in 1915. The cause of the disease was a 

 total crop failure during the period 1912-1914. The diet of the 

 natives consists of corn, corn meal, salt fish and a small amount of 

 meat, mostly dried or salted. The well-to-do class, which imports 

 fresh vegetables and fruits, were free from this disease. With the 

 arrival of the rainy period, and the consequent availability of fresh 

 vegetables, the disease disappeared completely. 



