164 THE VITAMINS 



An examination of the blood, bone marrow, and lymphoid tissues 

 of the guinea pigs with chronic scurvy showed more degeneration of 

 the bone marrow than of the blood or lymphoid tissue, the changes 

 being of the same nature as described by Zilva and Wells (1919) in 

 the tooth pulp. The lowered resistance to infection of these animals 

 was thought to be due, in part at least, to the degenerative changes in 

 the bone marrow. 



Mouriquand, Michel, and Bernheim (1924, 1924a) also noted an 

 abnormal condition of the bone marrow in scorbutic guinea pigs and 

 attributed the increased sensitivity to lack of vitamin C of guinea pigs 

 recently cured of scurvy to the persistence of these lesions. Werkman, 

 Nelson and Fulmer (1924) reported a definite though not a marked 

 decreased resistance to infection in scorbutic guinea pigs. Since this was 

 accompanied by no change in the agglutinin production and phagocytic 

 activity of the blood, the suggestion was made that the decreased 

 resistance to infection was due chiefly to lowered body temperature. 

 No study was made of the bone marrow. 



In 1924 there was published as a supplement to the Swedish journal 

 Acta Paediatrica a report by Hojer of his extensive investigation of 

 experimental scurvy. As was the case with Hoist and Frolich, Hojer's 

 studies did not become fully effective until the publication of later 

 papers in more accessible journals. 



In reviewing earlier vitamin C studies, Hojer emphasized the neces- 

 sity of having the basal diet complete in every respect except the anti- 

 scorbutic and in conducting the feeding tests quantitatively. The stock 

 diet which he used consisted of crushed oats, bran, unboiled lightly 

 skimmed milk, swedes (rutabagas), and green leaves, chiefly dandelion; 

 and the basal scurvy-producing diet was crushed oats and bran ad 

 libitum, supplemented with 60 cubic centimeters of lightly skimmed 

 milk boiled for half an hour with air bubbling through it, and 0.5 cubic 

 centimeter cod-liver oil per guinea pig per day. Occasionally 1 cubic 

 centimeter of a 50 per cent yeast emulsion was administered by pipette 

 to ensure a sufficiency of vitamin B. On this diet guinea pigs weighing 

 from 200 to 500 grams showed the first outward symptoms of scurvy 

 in about 16 days and died in from 18 to 38 days, the average survival 

 period being about 28 days. Realizing that in human scurvy the latent 

 form probably plays a more important role than the acute, Hojer made 

 a careful study of the effects of diets containing varying suboptimal 

 doses of orange juice as antiscorbutic as well as of diets supposedly 

 free from vitamin C. He found that even on the latter diet at least 

 two and often four weeks elapsed before growth ceased entirely, but 



