THE PRINCIPLE OF VITAL AFFINITY. 298 
pears to me peculiarly important in this inquiry. If we suppose that the imme- 
diate cause of the diminution of the albuminous matter in the biood, which takes 
place in that disease, is the action which the oxygen exerts on that matter,—in 
consequence usually of the small proportion of non-azotised matter which it finds 
in the blood,—and if the animal system has no power of forming albumen, we 
do not see how the increased introduction of oxygen should have any but an in- 
jurious effect ; but if by means of it a part, even a small part, of the blood, con- 
sisting of amylaceous and oily matter, can be made to yield albumen, at the same 
time that it gives out carbonic acid and water, we can distinctly understand how 
the accession of scurvy should be retarded or prevented. And, in fact, we find 
that this effect is very generally observed, as the result of habitual and invigora- 
ting exercise. 
It is stated by Sir E. Parry, that in Greenland the scurvy seldom makes its 
appearance among the natives until they confine themselves in their close huts 
for the winter, although the diet which they use when thus confined is the same 
as when they are moving about. 
In our own country we have had various examples, on a large scale, of scurvy 
affecting prisoners long confined, although the diet on which they lived would not 
appear to have been materially different from that on which many of the lower 
ranks, particularly in Scotland, when at large, preserve their health, and are fit 
for much muscular exertion. Thus the diet of the prisoners at the Millbank 
Penitentiary in 1822, on which more than half of them became scorbutic (indeed 
three-fourths of those above three years confined), consisted of 14 lb. of brown 
bread daily, with one quart of soup, which soup had been made with from 2 to 3 
oz. of the meat of ox-heads, with 3 oz. of garden stuffs, and was farther thickened 
with peas or barley; and at Coldbathfield Prison, about the same time, scurvy ap- 
peared pretty extensively within a few weeks after the diet had been reduced to 
14 lb. of white bread, with 1 pint either of soup or gruel in the day, and 3 Ib. of 
beef on Sunday.* Comparing this diet with that of many labouring men in Scot- 
land, consuming about 14 lb. of oatmeal, and perhaps 1 pint of milk daily, we can 
hardly doubt that the air and exercise of the latter exert an influence to improve 
the condition of the blood; whereas, upon the supposition that the oxygen of the 
air can give no help in forming albumen, that influence, in so far as the produc- 
tion of scurvy is concerned, should be only injurious. 
2. All the phenomena of Scrofulous disease appear clearly to indicate that 
what we call the scrofulous diathesis, is necessarily connected with a deficiency 
in the nutritious or albuminous constituents of the blood; and we can now put 
that proposition in a definite and tangible form, in consequence of the important 
observation of ANDRAL,—that in numerous trials made on the blood of persons 
* See Hoxrorp's Second Vindication, &c. &c., pp. 4, 5, 10. 
