568 Veterinary Medicine. 



Definition. Scurvy is a subacute or chronic trophic disorder 

 characterized by debiUty, inanition, anaemia, swelling and 

 bleeding of the gums, gingival ulceration, dropping of the teeth, 

 and petechial or more extensive haemorrhages and exudations in 

 the skin, serosa, and solid tissues. 



Animals susceptible. In past times man has suffered extensive- 

 ly in connection with unwholesome food and environment on 

 long sea voyages, on uninhabited islands, in military campaigns, 

 in besieged cities, in famines, when restricted to one article of 

 food, etc. Among the lower animals, pigs especially suffer, 

 when kept in close, foul quarters and fed a monotonous and in- 

 sufficient ration. Dogs suffer under similar conditions, and 

 probably other animals would if equally badly used. 



Causes. Formerly it was attributed to an exclusive diet of salt, 

 meat and bread ; to excess of sodium, and deficiency of potassium 

 salts ; to the absence of fresh vegetables ; to tainted food, etc. A 

 broader generalization shows the Eskimo living on a pure meat 

 diet, the Mongolian on rice alone, the Congoese on plantains, and 

 without scurvy. Yet it cannot be denied that these various con- 

 ditions undermine the general health, and prepare the system for 

 those faulty states of nutrition which are seen in scurvy. In pigs 

 the food and environment are usually chiefly at fault, the subjects 

 have been kept closely confined in foul buildings, in a hot, moist 

 atmosphere, and with an uniform diet of maize or other unvary- 

 ing and insuf&cient ration. It does not appear- when there is a 

 free access to a spacious yard or open field, and where the monoto- 

 nous diet can be varied by a variety of slugs and other inver- 

 tebrates. Roll attaches great importance to a putrid con- 

 dition of the aliments (putrescent swill). Benion has found it 

 mainly in obese swine, the forced feeding and intestinal fermenta- 

 tions nianifestly operating as factors. Corrupt drinking water 

 has proved a manifest factor among men living in camps, and 

 pigs above all other animals are subjected to this cause.- Benion 

 says it occurs in the advanced stages of measles (cysticercus 

 cellulosa). 



It is evident that unwholesome conditions of life such as the 

 above, contribute strongly to the affection, yet probably no one of 

 these is by itself an effective factor. Its rapid extension among 

 men and animals, that are huddled together in close, filthy 



