62 PHYSIOLOGY AND NATIONAL NEEDS 



possible of this characteristic and valuable property- 

 vegetables should be boiled — or, better, steamed — 

 for a short time, rather than stewed for a prolonged 

 period. Further, the addition of soda should be 

 avoided, as it has been shown that the antiscorbutic 

 principle is very sensitive to alkalis.^ Canning and 

 preserving also greatly diminish the antiscorbutic 

 value of food-stuffs, and in any circumstances 

 which lead to a restricted diet every effort should 

 be made to include in it fresh vegetables or ger- 

 minated pulses. 



Relation of Experimental to Human Scurvy, — 

 It may be concluded with a high degree of prob- 

 ability that the disease produced experimentally 

 in guinea-pigs is the physiological counterpart of 

 scurvy in human beings. This conclusion is sup- 

 ported in the first place by the close general simi- 

 larity of the symptoms in the two cases, and in 

 the second place by the important fact that the 

 same treatment is effective in curing the disease. 

 Further evidence is afforded by the fact that a 

 similar disease can be produced in monkeys by 

 withholding antiscorbutics frord their diet, and 

 that the symptoms produced in this case are again 

 closely allied to those observed on the one hand in 

 guinea-pigs and on the other in human beings, and 

 are, moreover, relieved by precisely the same treat- 

 ment as is efficacious in these cases. The monkey 



^ Harden and Zilva, 1918, Lancet, Sept. 7. 



