An Experimental Inquiry into Scurvy. 



263 



ness about the lips and gums. There was a very marked disinclina- 

 tion to bodily movement and a general tendency to mental prostration, 

 for the monkeys took little interest in the things surrounding them, in 

 those cases which showed what we might consider the more definite 

 symptoms of scurvy, such as the bloody mucus and bleeding gums. 



At the same time in none of these monkeys did we find any definite 

 tenderness of the limbs, no swelling of the legs, or any purpura. Only 

 in one case do we get the formation of bruise-like sores in an animal 

 which apparently was suffering from scurvy. 



In the monkeys included in the first group, which were fed on fresh 

 meat as well as maize and rice, the only symptom we note beyond the 

 wasting is diarrhoea, and none of these monkeys showed anything like 

 the muscular feebleness or general ill-health which was noted in the 

 scorbutic monkeys. 



When we compare the second group, Table II, in which the monkeys 

 received the same diet, except that the meat instead of being fresh was 

 tainted, we find a very different state of affairs. These monkeys 

 showed a very mu<?h greater prostration, and although it is diflficult to 

 judge by the eye they certainly seemed paler and generally out of con- 

 dition. No less than six out of the eight monkeys thus fed passed 

 blood and mucus in their motions. 



The question whether blood and mucus in the motions is to be 

 regarded as one of of the symptoms of scurvy, can be easily answered 

 by the fact that, first, Bristow states that " patients sufter from 

 looseness of the bowels, the motions frequently being highly offensive 

 and containing blood." It is also stated by other observers, such as 

 Hilton-Fagge and Osier, as well as in an able article on scurvy in 

 Ashurst's ' International Encyclopaedia of Surgery,' by Philip Wales, 

 that the occurrence of haemorrhages in the mucous membrane of the 

 stomach and bowels is of frequent occurrence. 



None of our monkeys vomited, so that whether they suffered from 

 haemorrhages in the stomach cannot be noted. In the post mortem there 

 was no evidence of any such thing. 



If this bloody diarrhoea is an evidence of scurvy, we find that no 

 less than six out of the eight monkeys which were given the tainted 

 meat showed this symptom. 



We now compare the third group, Table III, in which the monkeys 

 were given fresh fruit, apples or bananas, every day. One can say 

 that the monkeys in this case were well fed. Five monkeys were 

 observed, and out of these five monkeys no less than four developed 

 the symptoms of bloody mucus in their stools, so that in spite of good 

 feeding this symptom of scurvy developed in four out of the five 

 monkeys on full diet. 



We come to the next symptom, undoubtedly the most definite sign 

 of scurvy that occurs in man — in fact, it is about the only condition 



