300 ASCORBIC ACID 



deeply stained than those of the normal controls when trypan blue was 

 injected, suggesting a pathological change in the parenchyma. 



g. Respiratory Organs 



There are a i"eA\- reports of extensive study of the lungs in scurvy. ]\Ieyer^* 

 found that the lungs of many of his guinea pigs showed "little or no change 

 but very commonly small areas w'ere dark red and sometimes this was true 

 of an entire lolie or lung even, suggesting the existence of a l.roncho or lobar 

 pneumonia. Microscopic examination, however, never confirmed this" 

 (pneumonia). Congestion, collapse, and autolysis were sometimes observed. 

 Microscopic studies showed autolytic changes in which the walls of some 

 of the arteries had undergone almost complete lysis and cartilage cells in 

 various stages of lysis were common. The most striking change was the 

 presence of abundant vacuolation. Suitable stains revealed evidence of fatty 

 degeneration. 



h. Skin 



The water content of the skin increases in scurvy. Hartzell and Stone^" 

 found that the skin of the abdominal wall of normal guinea pigs contained 

 76.1% moisture whereas that of scorbutic animals contained 79.1%. 

 Bourne^^^ found that large doses of ascorbic acid administered to rats may 

 cause a loss of water from the skin even in normal animals. 



The usual scorbutic skin lesions are petechiae occurring near the hair 

 follicles. Wiltshire'^^ reported that in a large proportion of his cases 

 of human scur^y follicular keratosis was the first symptom of scurvy. It 

 has been thought possible that other deficiencies such as lack of vitamin A 

 may have been involved in producing the lesions, but Crandon, Lund, and 

 Dill's^^" production of the condition in experimentally induced human 

 scurvy affords convincing evidence that the condition can be caused l)y lack 

 of ascorbic acid alone. A comparable condition has not been described in 

 the guinea pig, although Sadhu^^ reported finding a considerable decrease 

 in the chondroitin sulfate content in the skin of scorbutic animals. Harman 

 and Warren^* found a marked contrast in the structure of the skin of 27- 

 day embryos of normal and vitamin C-deficient animals. Skin of the control 

 embryos showed "a well-defined thickened epidermal layer of cells. The 

 underlying cells had sharply defined cell walls and large, distinct well-de- 

 fined nuclei. In the sections of the skin of the embryo of the experimental 

 mother which had been on the deficient diet only 6 days the outer layer 



188 G. H. Bourne, Lancet 246, 688 (1944). 



189 H. Wiltshire, Lancet II, 564 (1919). 



i9» J. H. Crandon, C. C. Lund, and D. B. Dill, New Engl. J. Med. 223, 353 (1940). 



