An Ei'perimental Inquiry into Scurvy. 



251 



prominent importance in the warding off of scurvy as the general 

 teaching up to the present has led us to believe. These remarks of 

 his were drawn from practical experience in the Arctic regions, as will 

 be later mentioned. 



It is to the sojourners in the Arctic and Antarctic climes that 

 scru-vy nowadays is of such overwhelming importance, although in 

 some lands nearer home it is still rife, and occasional cases even now 

 occur in our marine services. Credit, as has been already stated, has 

 been given to the use of lime juice in the Eoyal Navy and the Merchant 

 Service for the great reduction of scurvy on board ship, but, as this 

 research will presently show, this conclusion is probably without justi- 

 fication. 



In the Nares Polar Expedition the crews of both the " Alert " and 

 the "Discovery" suffered greatly from this affliction, although lime 

 juice was taken daily by all hands when on board. When on the 

 sledging expeditions, in consequence of the necessities of such a con- 

 dition of travel, only a small quantity of lime juice was carried, yet an 

 outbreak of scurvy occurred, not only amongst the sledging parties, 

 but also amongst the men that remained on board ship and continued 

 to take the prescribed allowance ojf lime juice daily. 



On the other hand Mr. Leigh Smith's party, with its medical officer. 

 Dr. Neale, after the loss of their ship the " Eira," spent nine months, 

 including a winter, upon Franz Josef Land, in the severest, and, neces- 

 sarily, the most unsanitary, conditions imaginable. They had no lime 

 juice whatever ; however, they almost entirely lived upon freshly 

 killed meat and frozen blood, and no case of scurvy occurred amongst 

 them. 



On comparing these two examples we see that in the case of a body 

 of picked men, well housed, well cared for, and with all possible means 

 for procuring health adopted by those in command, taking the pre- 

 scribed quantity of lime juice daily (except in the case of the sledge 

 €rews when absent from the ship for a few weeks) but who lived almost 

 entirely on preserved meat, we have universal scurvy ; while, on the 

 ■other hand, we have a party who had not been selected on account of 

 physical fitness, who were cast upon the desolate shores of Franz Josef 

 Land, and with only the bare necessaries of existence, passed through 

 nine months of their life there under conditions of considerable priva- 

 tion and hardship, and in circumstances which would hardly meet 

 with the approval of any sanitary inspector. They had no lime juice, 

 but lived on freshly killed bear and walrus meat, and no symptoms of 

 scurvy appeared amongst them. 



No less striking results were obtained by Dr. Nansen and Lieutenant 

 Johansen- These two individuals, after they left the " Fram," had to 

 spend nine months, including the winter of 1895 and 1896, on Frederick 

 Jackson Isknd. They were forced to live in a rudely constructed hut, 



VOT.. LXVI. X 



