SCURVY 395 



ity; therefore, in the main, a picture which resembled the anemia of human 

 scurvy. The authors mentioned, therefore, believed themselves justified in de- 

 claring the disease of the monkeys to be scurvy, although the autopsies estab- 

 lished no proof. In the third group the addition of fresh fruits but slightly 

 influenced the disease of the animals. These investigations, although requir- 

 ing further demonstration, may be looked upon as proof that contaminated 

 meat has deleterious effects even in monkeys and as confirmation of the prac- 

 tical experience that only the intake of fresh meat can prevent the outbreak 

 of scurvy (compare prophylaxis). 



These investigations in connection with recently expressed views as to the 

 iijiportance of oral affections in the development of pernicious anemia (?) led' 

 Home ^ to assume ihat an affection of the gums is the origin of scurvy. He 

 believes that microorganisms still unknown (which may develop from tainted 

 food) infect the digestive tract, first producing a disease of the gums, and 

 then an anemia which leads to hemorrhages and ulceration. Outbreaks of 

 scurvy occurring under circumstances which preclude cleanliness of the oral 

 cavity are in conformity with this theory. 



Turner,^ according to the data gathered by him during the great scurvy 

 epidemic in the eastern provinces of Eussia during the year 1899, believes 

 scurvy to be due to a specific pathogenic agent which is still unknown, and to 

 be an infectious disease which is transmissible by contagion. In this he rea- 

 sons only from a clinical standpoint, whereas bacteriologic investigations in 

 this epidemic have given no positive results. The foundations for his belief 

 that the disease results from infection and not from errors in diet are: 1. The 

 epidemic character of the disease; 2. Its appearance in definite localities while 

 neighboring districts or those with which there is but slight communication 

 remain free; 3. The frequency of the disease among the rich; 4. The com- 

 mon occurrence of the disease in persons who are in daily contact with the 

 patients. He relates his experience with these conditions in a collection of 

 villages in the Government of Kazan which are populated by various races 

 (Eussians, Tartars, Tchuktchis), living isolated from each other. While the 

 Eussian villages remained almost free from the disease, the villages in which 

 there was but little communication with other races showed many cases of the 

 affection, particularly among the rich Tartar population. But in this region, 

 a village in which very poor heathen Tchuktchis lived entirely isolated re- 

 mained uninfected. The fact that the Tartars and their relatives ate salted 

 meat almost exclusively and no vegetables is, in his opinion, not proof to the 

 contrary. He lays the greatest stress upon the cases in which the disease was 

 contracted through nursing; among eight nurses who were active there, four 

 were attacked, and even the author himself had a mild form of the disease. 



The previously mentioned collective American Eeport shows that so-called 

 infantile scurvy must be regarded as the consequence of a chronic intoxica- 

 tion (chronic ptomain poisoning) produced by unsuitable food, for which 



1 " The Etiology of Scurvy." Lancet, August 4, 1890. 



2 " Le Scorbut est-il une maladie infectieuse ou contagieuse ? " Arch, ginir. de Mid., 

 Aoflt, 1900, 



