456 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1708. 



usual, and fell to pieces, as if it had been composed of clotted blood : and 

 sometimes the kidneys and the breast were full of -imposthumes. There were 

 some bodies of those of 15, in which, if we squeezed the end of the ribs, 

 which began to be separated from the cartilages, there issued abundance of 

 corrupted matter, which was the spongy part of the bone ; so that afterwards 

 there remained nothing of the rib, but two bony plates. 



Some patients had no other symptoms of the scurvy, but some slight ulcera- 

 tions in the gums: they had afterwards some small, red, hard tumors on the 

 hands, insteps, and on some other parts of the body. Afterwards, there ap- 

 peared large imposthumes on the groin, and under the arm-pits, attended with 

 several blue spots over all the body, which were the certain fore-runners of 

 death. We found that the glands under their arm-pits were very large, and 

 surrounded with corrupted matter or pus ; as well as the muscles of the arms 

 and thighs, the interstices of which were all filled with them. There were some 

 whose arms, legs, and thighs were of a reddish black, and as it were burnt ; 

 which proceeded from that black and coagulated blood, which was always found 

 under the skin of those persons. Their muscles were also swelled, and as hard 

 as wood ; which was owing to the blood, fixed in the body of the muscles, 

 which were sometimes so full of it, that their legs remained bent without being 

 able to extend or stretch them out. 



The blue, red, yellow, and black spots, which appear in the bodies of such 

 as have the common scurvy, proceed purely from extravasated blood under 

 the skin. As long as the blood retains its red colour, the spot is red; if the 

 blood become black or coagulated, the spot is also black ; when some bile is 

 mixed with it, the spot is of a yellowish black ; in short, according as the 

 blood is "mixed with humours of different colours, so the spots appear of dif- 

 ferent colours also. 



On the bodies of these patients were certain small tumours, which grew 

 larger every day : we applied emollient unguents to soften them, and on their 

 breaking, they formed a scorbutic ulcer, owing to the blood with which the 

 tumour was filled ; for as often as the plaster was removed, we still found under 

 it a great deal of coagulated blood ; and continuing to dress them, and take away 

 the blood, we entirely dried up the tumour, and the person was cured. Some 

 old persons had such large bleedings at the nose and mouth, that they died of 

 it, it being impossible to stop it, because the lympha of these persons was so 

 sharp and corrosive as to eat through the coats of the veins. And this kind of 

 haemorrhage was so much the more difficult to stop, because the blood of old 

 people is more fluid and watery than that of young persons, who are seldom 

 subject to this accident. 



