132 



THE VITAMINES 



a characteristic posture ("scurvy position"), lying on one side, the 

 painful limb stretched out into the air. In other cases, the animal 

 lies with its head on the floor of the cage, a position caused by the 

 pain in the jaws and gums ("scurvy face-ache position"). As soon 

 as the teeth become loose, the animals refuse their food and death 

 usually follows within the next few days. If the animals receive not 

 quite enough vitamine C, they recover and begin to grow, but the 

 joints do not become normal. An abundant addition of vitamine 

 C before the beginning of the experiment has no effect on the 

 time of development of scurvy, according to Hess (377); hence it 

 would seem that the body has no reserve supply of this vitamine. 



The post-mortem re- 

 veals rarification of the 

 long bones, with fractures 

 between the epiphysesand 

 the bones themselves; frac- 

 tures are also evident in 

 the ribs. The bones show 

 arrested ossification, and 

 atrophy of the existing 

 bone tissue and of the 

 ossification areas; the bone 

 marrow loses its lymphoid 

 character at the diaphyseal 

 ends, becomes poor in cells, 

 and sometimes presents a 

 homogeneous appearance ("Helles Mark"). Hess and Unger (378) 

 called attention to their observation of rosary in scurvy, which 

 might be mistaken for rickets. Rondoni and Montagnani (l.c.370) 

 described pathological investigations of guinea pigs fed on corn. 

 The symptoms seemed to resemble those of experimental scurvy 

 although they were more mild. The organs mostly found altered 

 were the spleen, thyroid gland and adrenals; the central nervous 

 system, liver, digestive tract, kidney and bone marrow were slightly 

 changed, while the myocardium and the lungs were still less 

 affected. The changes in the thyroid and adrenals go hand 

 in hand with a hypertrophy of the islands of Langerhans. Thy- 

 roid and spleen gave evidence of sclerosis; the adrenals, a diminu- 

 tion of lipoids; and in the cortex, atrophy and degeneration. 



FIG. 32. "FACE-ACHE" POSITION OF SCORBUTIC 

 GUINEA PIG (REP. MED. RES. COM.) 



