296 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



malnutrition as that which prevailed in cities and large 

 tracts of country in the Middle Ages and occurs 

 at the present day in Norway, caused by a diet of 

 badly salted fish and dried meat. This produced ulcera- 

 tion of the extremities, allowing the leprosy bacillus to 

 make its way through the broken skin into the tissues, 

 and thus led to the widespread occurrence of leprosy. 

 Whether bacilli of any kind were concerned in the old 

 virulent outbreaks of " scurvy " on sailing ships must 

 remain uncertain, but it is highly probable that they were. 

 In any case, it is certain that the juice of fresh meat 

 or of fresh vegetables when taken set going a better 

 condition of nutrition in the body, and so acted as a 

 preventive and a cure of scurvy. Some writers suppose 

 that it was the salts, such as citrates and lactates, 

 present in fresh fruits and vegetables which were 

 effective in staying the disease ; but this has by no 

 means been proved, and is not, at the moment, accepted. 

 It is probable that here, as in the case of Mr. Hopkins's 

 rats, it was a quite minute quantity of a readily-destroyed 

 proteid present in fresh meat and vegetables which was 

 necessary to keep the chemical processes of nutrition in 

 healthy activity. 



This view is supported by the fact that in recent 

 years a disease of infants similar to scurvy, and called 

 " infantile scurvy," has been described by Sir Thomas 

 Barlow, and fully recognized. It is a condition of 

 " malnutrition," and is accompanied by " rickets," and is 

 due in the first place to failure of the mother's milk, and 

 secondly to the bad quality of the cows' milk substituted 

 for it. Owing to the danger of infection by bovine 

 tubercle-bacillus and the great expense of " certified " 

 milk from specially selected cows (eightpence a quart), 

 it is customary to boil the milk given to children. 



