264 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [August 



As the daylight comes, people are busier than ever. It does 

 one good to see so much work going on. 



Friday, August i8. — Atkinson lectured on 'Scurvy' last 

 night. He spoke clearly and slowly, but the disease is anything 

 but precise. He gave a little summary of its history afloat 

 and the remedies long in use in the Navy. 



He described the symptoms with some detail. Mental de- 

 pression, debility, syncope, petechia?, livid patches, spongy gums, 

 lesions, swellings, and so on to things that are worse. He passed 

 to some of the theories held and remedies tried in accordance 

 with them. Ralph came nearest the truth in discovering decrease 

 of chlorine and alkalinity of urine. Sir Almroth Wright has hit 

 the truth, he thinks, in finding increased acidity of blood — acid 

 intoxication — by methods only possible in recent years. 



This acid condition is due to two salts, sodium hydrogen 

 carbonate and sodium hydrogen phosphate; these cause the 

 symptoms observed and infiltration of fat in organs, leading 

 to feebleness of heart action. The method of securing and test- 

 ing serum of patient was described (titration, a colorimetric 

 method of measuring the percentage of substances in solution), 

 and the test by litmus paper of normal or super-normal solution. 

 In this test the ordinary healthy man shows normal 30 to 50 : the 

 scurvy patient normal 90. 



Lactate of sodium increases alkalinity of blood, but only 

 within narrow limits, and is the only chemical remedy suggested. 



So far for diagnosis, but it does not bring us much closer 

 to the cause, preventives, or remedies. Practically we are much 

 as we were before, but the lecturer proceeded to deal with the 

 practical side. 



In brief, he holds the first cause to be tainted food, but 

 secondary or contributory causes may be even more potent in 

 developing the disease. Damp, cold, over-exertion, bad air, bad 

 light, in fact any condition exceptional to normal healthy ex- 

 istence. Remedies are merely to change these conditions for the 

 better. Dietetlcally, fresh vegetables are the best curatives — 

 the lecturer was doubtful of fresh meat, but admitted its possi- 

 bility in polar climate; lime juice only useful if regularly taken. 

 He discussed lightly the relative values of vegetable stuffs, doubt- 

 ful of those containing abundance of phosphates such as lentils. 

 He touched theory again in continuing the cause of acidity to 



