VOL. LXVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 401 



50° 53' 3" for the latitude of Louvain, and its longitude Q"' 37^ in time, or 

 2° 24' 15", east of Paris. Also the longitude of Brussels 8"" 7^ or 2° 1' 45" east 

 of Paris. 



XXXI. Observations on the Scurvy. By Charles De Mertaris, M. D. Dated 



Vienna, Jan. 14, 1778. p. 66l. 

 The diseases of a great multitude of people, living in the same manner, and 

 obliged to live on unwholesome food, are to be corrected by a correction of the 

 food itself, and not by any medicines properly so called. Consistently with this 

 principle. Dr. M. always thought that the salt provisions used by sea-faring 

 people, being the principal cause of the scurvy wiiich makes such fatal havoc 

 among crews engaged on long navigations, it was necessary to tind out some 

 food of an opposite nature to this, capable likewise of being preserved at sea. 



Salt provisions are hard of digestion ; and all food, which our powers of di- 

 gestion cannot reduce to a good chyle, undergoes in theprimae viae such altera- 

 tions as are proper to the respective species of it in regard to heat and humidity; 

 consequently, the chyle produced by salt provisions partakes altogether of an 

 animal nature tending to putrefaction. When it mixes with the blood, it in- 

 creases this disposition which our fluids have of themselves ; and thus, by de- 

 grees, introduces that slow putrid degeneration which we call scurvy, of which, 

 he was persuaded, there is but one sort, different in its degrees. He was like- 

 wise persuaded that the sea and land scurvy are the same disorder, arising from 

 similar causes, that is, living on salt meat or fish, few or no vegetables, damp 

 houses, &c. 



To prevent then or correct this alteration in the humours, we must find out 

 some antiseptic aliments, which may keep a great while, and not be subject to 

 be damaged by the change of climate. Dr. M. used to think that sour krout, 

 or fermented cabbage, so frequently used in Germany, had these qualities ; that 

 though it did not always please those who eat it for the first time, every one 

 soon got used to it, and found it good and wholesome food ; that sailors in par- 

 ticular were very fond of it, especially when they had no other greens. He had 

 accordingly several conversations on the subject, 12 years ago, with Messieurs 

 Preston and Langley, in which he expressed his wishes that sour krout might be 

 carried out and made part of the ships provision. 



He had for some years past seen, with great pleasure, in the public papers, 

 and the relations of travellers, that the trials he wished for had been crowned 

 with success ; and that the preservation of tiie healths of many crews, which 

 have gone round the world, has been owing to sour krout. Other methods are 

 likewise in the food, and they consist of vegetables eaten in a state of crudity, 

 and such as the earth affords them. He was convinced, that all the greens 



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