405 



SCURVY. 



SCYTHE. 



406 



liar disease produced by spurred rye or other grain), and some of the 

 |.e.stilential fevers of the middle ages, both in their causes and 

 symptoms, and there can be no doubt that the chroniclers of those 

 times often mistook one for the other. It is customary to fix upon 

 the year 12CO as the date of the first authentic mention of the malady, 

 which then appeared in the Christian army during the campaign of 

 St. -Louis in Egypt. In the north of Europe, however, it would seem 

 that scurvy has been known from the most remote antiquity, and 

 until within the last two centuries it prevailed there endemically. 

 With the improvements in gardening and agriculture, it gradually 

 became less frequent. As late as the middle of the last century it 

 was common not only among the peasants on the borders of the 

 Baltic, but it prevailed in Scotland and in some of the sea-port 

 towns of Devonshire and Cornwall, breaking out in winter, and 'dis- 

 appearing as vegetable food became more abundant with the return of 

 spring. Later the disease baa occurred in camps, as in the French 

 army of the Alps at the close of the last century ; and in besieged 

 towns whose inhabitants have been deprived of fresh vegetables. A 

 famous French physician, M. Fodere", mentions that isolated cases 

 occur every year in the more unhealthy quarters of Paris. Some 

 of its earlier symptoms may occasionally be observed in patients 

 admitted into the Londou hospitals ; and our prison reports prove 

 it to be by no means uncommon in persons sentenced to long 

 periods of confinement Diseases are still endemic in various parts 

 of Europe, which present a great analogy to scurvy both in their 

 causes and symptoms; such as the Radesyge in Norway, the Mai 

 de la Rosa in the province of Asturias in Spain, and the Pellagra in 

 Lombardy. 



During the prevalence of the potato disease in Ireland, in 1845, 

 scurvy prevailed extensively. It was occasionally observed at the 

 same time in most of the large towns of England, and since, when 

 potatoes have been scarce, it has been known to break out. During 

 the Crimean war, it prevailed extensively, both among the French and 

 English troops. 



it H at sea that the ravages of scurry have been most severely 

 felt, and any one at all familiar with the accounts of our early navi- 

 gators must remember many heart-rending tales of suffering which 

 they record. Even as recently as the time of Lord Anson scurvy was 

 o fatal that during the first two years of his voyage he lost more 

 than four-fifths of his original crew. The sagacity of Captain Cook 

 however, only thirty years afterwards, suggested to him such means 

 for the preservation of the health of his ship's company, that in a 

 voyage of more than three yean only one sailor of the Resolution died. 

 The name of Captain Cook is now frequently mentioned in connection 

 with his successful voyages, but his claim to the gratitude of pos- 

 inay be fairly grounded on the wonderful sanitary results of his 

 voyage round the world. 



The improvements which, at the suggestion principally of the 



ill. Blane, were introduced into the victualling of the navy 



at the end of the hut century, and especially the free employment of 



lemon-juice, have banished this disease from our navy, though it is 



Ktiil by no means infrequent in the merchant service. 



The use of salt provisions has been very generally regarded as one 

 of the most powerful exciting causes of scurvy. This notion, however, 

 is not altogether free from error, for scurvy occurs even among those 

 who never taste salted food. Such was the case with some of our 

 troops quartered in the province of Adelaide at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, among whom scurvy appeared in the year 1836. The men at 

 that time bad no hard duty to perform, and were supplied with fresh 

 meat in abundance, but were deprived of vegetables. The annual 

 occurrence of scurvy among the inmates of the lunatic asylum at 

 Moorahedabad in India is an additional confirmation of the same fact. 

 We may with more propriety refer the disease to the absence of 

 vegetables than to any directly injurious effects produced by salt 

 provisions. 



The greatest attention to ventilation was not found during Lord 



Anson'* voyage to diminish the severity of the disease ; and this 



stance, couplet I with other facts, such as the non-occurrence of 



scurvy in the ill-ventilated houses of the poor in London, warrants the 



that impure air is not an exciting cause of scurvy. 

 ,.; facts have led to the supposition that cold and moisture tend 

 much to produce scurvy, but Dr. Budd, in his able treatise on scurvy, 

 in the ' Library of Practical Medicine,' states that the men admitted 

 with scurvy into the Dreadnought hospital-ship come almost exclu- 

 sively from the Mauritius, India, Ceylon, or China. The non-existence 

 of scurvy at Venice, and in other similar situations, proves that 

 -ture alone cannot produce the disease. 



It has been asserted, but never satisfactorily proved, that scurvy ia 

 propagated by contagion ; an opinion which is now usually regarded as 

 i-rr. .neous. 



>i all investigations, we may conclude that there is one condition 

 which never fails to produce scurvy in persons, however various their 

 nituatioiu may be in other respects, namely, a prolonged abstinence 

 from succulent vegetables or fruits, or their preserved juices, as an 

 article of food. But we are hardly warranted in asserting, as some 

 men of eminence have done, that a deficiency of vegetable food is the 

 only cause capable of producing scurvy. A disease very similar to 

 scurvy, which used to attack the negroes in the West Indies, was 



attributed to their living exclusively upon bananas, and its cure con- 

 sisted in changing their diet, and giving them fish and flesh to eat. 

 Bad nutriment, of whatever kind, will, according to M. Fodere', some- 

 times produce the disease, and Dr. Henderson, a naval surgeon, 

 recently stated in a medical periodical, that he has seen scurvy occur 

 in pei-sons who were taking daily doses of lemon-juice as a prophy- 

 lactic against the disease. 



From these facts Dr. Garrod was led to suppose that the real cause 

 of scurvy was some deficiency in the food which was supplied by 

 vegetable diet. Having examined the constituents of food that pro- 

 duced scurvy, he was led to conclude that such food was deficient in 

 potash. Having analysed those vegetable foods which prevent and 

 cure scurvy, as potatoes, water cresses, cabbages and lemon-juice, he 

 found in all these a considerable quantity of potash. It is difficult to 

 test this theory by withholding vegetable food and administering the 

 salt* of potash to patients afflicted with scurvy. It has, however, 

 this characteristic of a true theory, that it explains the phenomena 

 of the cure of scurvy by the addition of fruits or vegetables to 

 the diet. 



It was at one time supposed that the citric acid of the' lemon-juice 

 was the active cause of cure in cases of scurvy, and when this acid was 

 separated it was substituted in the navy for the lemon-juice, but it 

 entirely failed to arrest the disease. 



Previous debility appears to predispose to scurvy, as does also an 

 advanced age ; the disease being rarest between twenty and thirty 

 years of age, though it occurs more frequently between the fifteenth 

 and twentieth year than in the succeeding ten years. The first 

 symptoms of the affection are a change of the natural healthy com- 

 plexion to a pale or sallow tint, accompanied with pains in the legs and 

 loins, great languor and despondency, and indisposition to exercise. 

 The gums soon become sore, apt to bleed on the slightest touch, livid 

 and spongy. As the disease progresses the debility becomes greater, 

 the slightest exertion inducing breathlessness and palpitation, and the 

 complexion assumes a brownish or dingy hue. The gums become 

 more livid, and swell more, so as sometimes to conceal the teeth, which 

 drop out without undergoing decay. Haemorrhage takes place from 

 the lungs and from various internal organs, ecchymoses appear, and 

 blood is effused under the skin in various parts, especially on the 

 lower extremities and around the seat of any old injury. In the ham 

 this effusion of blood is sometimes so considerable as to cause con- 

 traction of the knee- joint. Any wounds or ulcers put on an unhealthy 

 appearance, and become covered with coagulated blood, and the 

 slightest scratches degenerate into troublesome sores. In high degrees 

 of scurvy, as in the case of Lord Auson's sailors, old wounds break out 

 afresh, and a broken bone will become disunited, although the fracture 

 may have been consolidated for some time. With these symptoms 

 there is not so much derangement of the general functions as might be 

 expected. The appetite usually continues good, though the patients 

 are unable, owing to the state of their gums, to masticate their 

 ordinary food ; they sleep well, and the intellect is unaffected, though 

 the spirits are much depressed. Scorbutic persons swoon readily, and 

 not unfrequently die suddenly on making some more considerable 

 exertion than usual. 



If the disease should prove fatal, discoloured spots are found in 



many internal organs, while their tissue generally is of a paler colour 



than natural. The blood contains a less quantity of red particles than 



usual, but they are not dissolved in the serum, as some have supposed. 



I'TAOE. [EscCAQE.] 



SCUTELLARIN. A bitter matter of unknown composition found 

 in the SciUellaria laterijlwa. 



SCY'TALE lovfi/rdAij, a stick) is the name of a secret mode of 

 writing which was used by the ephors at Sparta in their communi- 

 cations with their kings or generals when abroad. The ephors out the 

 material upon which they intended to write into one long stripe, like a 

 narrow riband, which they wound about a round staff so as to cover 

 the whole. The command or communication which they had to send 

 was then written upon it, and then the slip of writing material was 

 taken from the staff and sent to the king or general. The slip appeared 

 only covered with single letters, which none could read unless he wound 

 the slip around a staff of precisely the same size as that used by the 

 ephors. Kings and generals therefore, when they went abroad, were 

 provided by the ephors with a staff precisely like that which the ephors 

 themselves intended to use in their communications with them. (Plut., 

 ' Lysand.,' 19.) This rude mode of sending a message must have originated 

 at a very early period, but no instance of it is recorded previous to the 

 time of Pausanias. ^orn. Nepos, ' Paus.,' 3.) After the Peloponnesian 

 war, we find the Spartans using the scytale also as a medium through 

 which they sent commands to their allied cities. (Xenoph., ' Hist. Or.,' 

 v. 2, 37.) 



SCYTHE. The common scythe is an instrument too well known 

 to require a minute description, but as much of its utility in agriculture 

 depends on a correct adjustment of its parts, we shall briefly advert to 

 them. The blade of the scythe, which is always curved, with the 

 cutting edge on the concave side, is fixed to the handle at an angle 

 both to the plane of the blade and to the tangent to the curve. It is 

 on the nice, adjustment of these angles that the perfection of the 

 instrument depends. A scythe must cut the corn or grass, especially 

 the latter, as near to the ground as possible ; and where the land lies 



