SCURVY. 



Tight of the fruit ; the fpirits are exhilarated by the tafte 

 itfelf ; and the juice is fwallowed with emotions of themoft 

 voluptuous luxury. The gums are gradually hardened, and 

 the teeth fixed in their fockets. The dull eye and bloated 

 looks in a few days put on the clear healthy complexion, 

 which alfo extends to the whole furface of the body. The 

 abforption of the effufed blood in different parts goes on 

 rapidly, and by marking the fpote, you may calculate the 

 progrefs of the abforption, and the cure of the difeafe. 

 This abforption befpeaks a degree of ftimulus communicated 

 to the lymphatic fyilem as well as the fanguiferous, as foon 

 as the blood has received a fufficient quantity of the vivify. 

 ing principle. From the effefts of the juice upon the bile, 

 the colour of the ftools is changed, and a lax ilate of the 

 bowels is the confequence. But it is to be obferved, that 

 this laxity of the inteftines may be moderated by giving the 

 fruit in fmaller quantities : a fpeedy cure, however, demands 

 that they fhould be given ad libitum, and the greater the 

 number of lemons taken in a day, the recovery will be mora 

 rapid in proportion. Loc.'cit. p. 142. 



While, on the one hand, thefe frefli vegetables and vegeta- 

 ble acids fpecdily remove the fymptoms of fcurvy, experience 

 has fully afcertained, on the other, that the medicines callei 

 tonics, fucli as the mineral acids, fteel, Peruvian bark, and 

 the various vegetable bitters, which have alfo been confidered 

 as antifeptics, or antidotes of putrefaftion, are incapable of 

 affording any effeftual relief. And wine, which has been 

 found a valuable remedy in fome low fevers, gives but a 

 momentary tlimulus ; but it dots not retard the diieafe, nor 

 afford any permanent relief alone. It was clearly proved, 

 too, in lord Anfon's fleet and elfewhere, that abundance of 

 frefh provifions of animal fubftances and fifh, even with 

 plenty of frefh water, did not tend to arreft the progrefs of 

 the difeafe. The ufe of mercury appears to be injurious 

 under every ftage of the fcurvy. 



In fpeaking of the predifpofing caufes of fcurvy, we have 

 mentioned the effeft of the deprefiing paffions in inducing 

 and aggravating the difeafe ; and we have now to mention, 

 on the other hand, the remarkable effefts of hope, and the 

 exciting paflions, in aiding the cure of the dilcafe. The 

 following llriking example of this medicine of the mind is 

 related by Vander Mye, in his account of the difeafe, when 

 it occurred during the fiege of Breda, fpreading dcfpair and 

 death around. " On the 2d of May, 1625, when the prince 

 of Orange heard of their diftrefs, and underllood that the 

 city was in danger of being delivered up to the enemy by 

 the foldiers, he wrote letters addrefled to the men, promifing 

 tRem the mofl fpeedy relief. Thefe were accompanied with 

 medicines againlt the fcurvy, faid to be of great price, but 

 of ftill greater efBcacy : many more were yet to be fcnt. 

 The effeds of this deceit were truly aftonifhiiig ! Three 

 fmall phials of medicine were given to each phylician, not 

 enough for the recovery of two patients. It was publicly 

 given out, tliat three or four drops were fufficient to impart 

 a healing virtue to a gallon of liquor. We now difplayed 

 our wonder-working balfams. Nor were even the com- 

 manders let into the iecret of the cheat put upon the foldiers. 

 They flocked in crowds about us, every one foliciting that 

 part might be refervcd for their ufe. Cheerfulnefs again ap- 

 pears on every countenance ; and an univerfal faitii prevails 

 in the fovercign virtues of the remedy. The herbs now began 

 to fpring up above the ground ; we of thefe made decoftions, 

 to which wormwood and camphor were added, that by 

 their prevalent flavour the medicines might appear of no 

 mean tfiicacy. The ftilf contraftcd linibs were anointed 

 with wax melted in rape-feed or linfeed oil. The invention 

 of new and untried phyfic is boalled j and amidlt a defeft of 



every necefTary and ufeful medicine, a ftrange medley of 

 drugs was compounded. The effeft, however, of the de- 

 lufion was really aftonifhing : for many were quickly and 

 perfedtly recovered. Such as had not moved their limbs for 

 a month before, were feen walking the ftreets found, upright, 

 and in perfedl health. They boalted of their cure by the 

 prince's remedy : the motion of their joints being reltored 

 by a fimplc friftion with oil, nature now of itfelf well per- 

 forming its office, or at leaft with a fmall afliftance from me- 

 dicine. Many who declared that they had been rendered 

 worfe by all former remedies which had been admiiiiilered, 

 recovered in a few days, to their inexpreffible joy, and the 

 no lefs general furprife, by the taking (almolt by their 

 having brought to them) what we affirmed to be their 

 gracious prince's cure." This account of the curative in- 

 fluence of the paffions is fully fanftioned by the t^atemeHt 

 in lord Anfon's voyage, already quoted, and by a faft men- 

 tioned by Mr. Ives, in his journal. On the 30th of January, 

 1744, there were nearly feventy perfons ill of fcurvy in the 

 Mediterranean fleet ; yet the joy of approaching the enemy's 

 fleet, and the hope of beating them, had fuch an effeft, that 

 on the nth of February following, when the engagement 

 happened, there were not above five men not at their fight- 

 ing quarters. 



Many remedies have been mentioned by different writers, 

 who have treated of fcurvy, and many local applications 

 and methods of curing particular urgent fymptoms, fuch a9 

 hemorrhages, fpongy gums, ulcerations, diarrhoea, ftiffnefi 

 of the tendons, &c. have been detailed ; but it is unnecef- 

 fary to repeat them ; finca the only effcftual mode of 

 alleviating particular fymptoms is the radical cure of the 

 conllitutional difeafe. " Fomentations, the warm-baths, 

 &c." Dr. Trotter obferves, " have been often tried for 

 the rigid tendons, and hardnefs of the mufclcs, but with- 

 out effedl : ilimulant applications have been equally un- 

 fuccefsful. For the difficult breathing and tightnefs about 

 the breafl, blifters and the whole train of expectorants arc 

 infufficient to relieve them. Opium itfelf, our laft and only 

 refuge in other cafes of acute pain, affords no rcfrelhing 

 flecp or eafe to the fcorbutic fufferer. We have heard 

 much of fudoriiics opening the pores of the flcin and foftcn- 

 ing the furface ; but this is trifling with the com])laint. It 

 is only the produce of frclh vegetation, that can adminifter 

 to him the reviving cordial ; and a few lemons will do more 

 to afiuage his anguifli than the whole art of pharmacy." 

 P. 231. 



On the Nature »f Scurvy. — Various hypothefes liave been 

 framed at different times, according to tiie prevalent patho- 

 logical doftrines, to account for the phenomena of this 

 Angular and formidable difeafe ; and like moll other medical 

 hypothefes, they have hinged chiefly upon two principles, 

 by one of wliich they are referred to certain morbid condi- 

 tions of the blood or circulating fluids, and by the other 

 to morbid changes in the property of the living folids. If 

 we take into confideration, however, the whole phenomena 

 of the difeafe, its caufes, and remedies, we fluiU find 

 confiderable difficulty in admitting either of thele hypo- 

 thefes exclufivcly, and not a little in giving any lati:fattary 

 view of the fubjed, even by allowing tiie partial truth of 

 both. 



All the older writers, being of the bumoral fchool, main- 

 tained the dodrine of a morbid flate of llie fluids, as the 

 proximate caule of fcurvy. Bocrliaave and his adiicrents 

 referred the difeafe to an acrimony of the fluids, which tlicy 

 fuppofed would be of a different quality, accorduig to the 

 different caufes which produced it ; thus it would be an 

 alkaline acrimony from fait and putrid provifions and foul 

 O 2 water, 



