SCURVY 299 



During the World War, thousands of cases were observed, and it is 

 most likely that no single army was entirely immune. Hehir (I.e. 

 867) described numerous cases among the Indian troops, in Mesopo- 

 tamia, who refused to eat meat because of religious scruples. Turner 



(940) states that 30 to 50 per cent of these troops developed scurvy, 

 and Wilcox quoted the following figures: 



1916 11,445 



1917 2,197 



1918 826 



On the other hand, among the English troops, only sporadic cases 

 were seen. The situation was so serious that a corps of gardeners 



(941) was sent to Mesopotamia by the English government to plant 

 vegetables of every kind and to distribute seeds which could be 

 sprouted when the need developed. L. Hill (942) described an 

 occurrence of scurvy among English troops in Scotland, attributed 

 to excessive cooking of vegetables. The disease seemed to single out 

 particularly those men who were engaged in hard work. 



During the late war, the disease was noted in Russia by Horschelmann 

 (943) and among the Russian prisoners in Turkestan, by Disque (944). 

 Borich (945), chief surgeon of a Red Cross Station in Russia, person- 

 ally observed 1343 cases. Among some troops, 75 per cent of the 

 men were disabled by this disease. 



In France, Harvier (946) reported that in 1917 95 per cent of his 

 800 troops developed scurvy, while at the same time the disease was 

 discovered in other detachments. Benoit (947) saw 63 cases out of a 

 body of 350 men, but only of a transient nature; the patients recovered 

 without special treatment. Mouriquand (948) too spoke of a number 

 of scorbutic cases in the army. 



For the Italian army, we have the reports of Ferrari (949), 

 Ramoino (950) Gingui (951), and of Vanutelli (952), who observed 

 200 cases of infectious purpura with hemorrhagic scurvy. Vallardi 

 (953), in Macedonia, saw cases among Italian soldiers who mani- 

 fested icterus and enlargement of the glands. 



From Germany and Austria, we have many reports of the army 

 medical staff, from which it is clear that many of the cases were 

 diagnosed (954) as purpura or rheumatism. The cases of scurvy 

 during the war were so numerous that special stations were opened. 

 Schreiber (955) observed 30 German prisoners suffering from scurvy, 



