324 Vitamines and Deficiency Diseases [June-September 



Mealie meal (milled Beans 2 Ib. weekly 



maize) 2 Ib, daily Monkey nuts 1.5-2 Ib. weekly 



Meat I Ib. weekly Salt ad. lib. 



Here we find cases o£ scurvy on a diet of milled maize, The compo- 

 sition of milled maize will be indicated in the section on pellagra 

 (V), with some interesting reflections upon the influence of diet on 

 resistance to infectious diseases. Darling (49) described scurvy 

 cases in the Rand due to overmilled maize. He finds, in these cases, 

 hypertrophy and dilatation of the right heart, fatty degeneration of 

 the heart muscle, severe degeneration of the vagus, which show the 

 relationship of beriberi to scurvy 



Scurvy in animals. A description of a very complete investi- 

 gation of scurvy in animals appears in a book on Infantile Scurvy, 

 by Hart and Lessing (50). They studied various animals, subject 

 to scurvy, in which allantoin is an end-product of purin metabolism. 

 From their account it is apparent that the most suitable animal f or the 

 study of scurvy is the monkey, the pathological lesions correspond- 

 ing with those of human scurvy. In other animals the foUowing 

 changes were noted on dififerent diets : 



Food Animals Lesions 



Oats Rabbits Fragility of bones 



Guinea-pigs Scurvy 



Mice, rats, cats No lesions 



Pigs Scurvy and beriberi 

 Maize Guinea-pigs Scurvy 



Sterilized milk Calves Fragility of bones 



Young rats Arrest of growth 



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The last fact above will be discussed in the chapter on growth. 



Infantile scurvy. The identity of infantile scurvy and adult 

 scurvy does not require further discussion. It is also universally 

 admitted that infantile scurvy is caused by overheated milk. Hess 

 and Fish (51) have found that scurvy develops in infants fed on 

 milk pasteurized at 145° F. for 30 min. The cases could be cured 

 either with raw milk, fruit-juices or by addition to milk of potato- 

 water. Cod liver oil proved to be inactive in cases of scurvy. The 

 resistance of blood vessels was found to be weaker than in normal 

 individuals. Another interesting finding by these authors was the 

 fact that orange-peel extract was just as effective as orange juice 



