IX. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY IN HUMAN 15 KINGS 



357 



edentulous but who has a focal hcaped-up blue-red gum lesion will be found 

 to have a hidden tooth root under the lesion if x-rays of the jaws are made. 

 James Lind described the gum lesions also in vivid terms. "The gums be- 

 come itchy and swell and are apt to bleed upon the gentlest friction. The 

 breath is then offensive. . . . The gums appear of an unusual livid redness, 

 are soft and spongy, and become afterward extremely putrid and fungous." 

 Though hemorrhages occur in the mucous membranes elsewhere in the 

 mouth, the typical gum lesion does not spread from the gingiva. Such blue- 



FiG. 11. Scorbutic gingival lesion around a solitary tooth snag. The edentulous 



gum was normal. 



red, swollen, friable hemorrhagic gums occur in few other diseases, though 

 toxic reactions to dilantin and acute monocytic leukemia may include gum 

 lesions which mimic scurvy. The red, ulcerated atrophied gums of chronic 

 non-specific gingivitis are sufficiently different in appearance so that dif- 

 ferentiation from scurvy is easy. 



The teeth loosen in the alveolar bone. They can be moved easily with the 

 finger, and many scorbutic patients have performed their own extractions 

 or have had teeth fall out while they were attempting to eat. Once the tooth 

 is out the lesion recedes slowly, but complete healing is delayed until 

 ascorbic acid is supplied. Lesions of the gums have occurred late in the 

 course of human scurvy induced experimentally,^^- '^ and slight fragmenta- 



