DIET FOR SCURVY AND PDRPUEA. 343 



years either to arrest or to correct them. It may be given in any 

 case in which there is wasting without acute febrile symptoms, in 

 teaspoonful-doses, two or three times a day, commencing even with 

 half a teaspoonful if it be found to disagree or if there be reluc- 

 tance to take a larger dose. This, or olive-oil, may also be advan- 

 tageously employed for inunction over the chest, abdomen and back. 

 Beef, mutton, venison and fowlsare the best kinds of animal food; 

 to these should be added preparations of eggs and milk, a due 

 quantity of bread, mealy potatoes, rice and other farinaceous 

 ingredients, as more suited to this class of patients than very watery 

 and succulent vegetables. Everything that favors the production 

 of acidity, too much fruit, very salt, sweet, fat or highly seasoned 

 food, should be avoided. No food, not ever cod-liver oil, should be 

 so given as to excite disgust. The variety to stimulate the appetite 

 should however be in methods of simple cookery, rather than in the 

 selection of what is tasty but innutritious. Alcohol may be of 

 some service when prescribed as a medicine, but only under foe 

 watchful observation of a physician. 



DIET FOR SCURVY AND PURPURA. 



Scurvy and purpura (though the latter is called land-scurvy) 

 are not the same disease, but analogous. Both are characterized by 

 morbid conditions of the blood and capillary vessels which cause 

 effusions of blood of greater or less extent just beneath the skin 

 and in other parts, and are followed by other symptoms. Both are 

 amenable to dietetic treatment in conjunction with suitable medi- 

 cinal remedies. Scurvy gradually supervenes on the continued use 

 of a dietary deficient in vegetable acids. Its occurrence is greatly 

 aided by general deficiency and limited range of food, exposure to 

 cold and wet, and mental and moral depression. It has been deemed 

 to be inseparable from long voyages, but has been proved to be 

 preventable and curable by means to be found in every inhabited 

 country. It is very prevalent in Iceland, especially on the western 

 coast, where the inhabitants depend chiefly on fishing and where 

 the pastures are limited in extent and inferior in produce. 



The corrective is obvious, viz , the supply of those articles of 

 food, fresh vegetables, milk and good diet generally, which contain 

 ingredients the absence of which has led to the diseased condition. 

 Cabbage is perhaps the most valuable an ti- scorbutic we possess. 

 In slight cases of scurvy or purpura, where bleeding from the veins 

 is almost the only symptom, it is very successful both in producing 

 a cure and in preventing other members of the family from suffer- 

 ing from it. The vegetable should be fresh ; if it has been kept 

 and then wetted to freshen it up again it is not nearly so efficacious, 

 and if fermentation has taken place it is positively injurious. The 



