72 PHYSIOLOGY AND NATIONAL NEEDS 



digestive disturbance. 1 An account of the effect of 

 this remedy in the treatment of a case of scurvy 

 will serve to illustrate these points and, at the same 

 time, to show the distressing nature of the disease 

 as manifested in young children. The child a male 

 infant aged seven months had been fed on sterilised 

 humanised milk from birth and had received the 

 juice of one orange once a week for five months. 

 At 5j months the gums were swollen and bled 

 easily, and after another week he began to scream 

 as if in pain when moved. (This is a very charac- 

 teristic symptom of infantile scurvy.) On admis- 

 sion to hospital the upper gums were greatly swollen, 

 dark purple and fungating, projecting almost be- 

 tween the lips. The edge of the central incisors 

 could just be seen, almost buried in the swollen, 

 projecting gums. The legs were motionless except 

 for movements of ankles and toes. Both legs 

 seemed very painful to touch. There was some 

 recent haemorrhage into vaccination scars and the 

 urine contained red blood cells. 



The infant was put upon a diet of undiluted 

 boiled milk, which clinical experience has shown to 

 have no curative effect on scurvy. One ounce of 

 the concentrated preparation, equivalent to double 

 the bulk of original lemon-juice, was given three 

 times a day, i.e. the equivalent of about four lemons 

 daily. 



1 Harden, Zilva and Still, Lancet, 1919, Jan. 4. 



