Report of the Commitee appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to enquire into the causes of the outbreak of scurvy in the recent Arctic Expedition ; the adequacy of the provision made by the Admiralty in the way of food, medicine, and medical comforts ; and the propriety of the orders given by the commander o[f] the Expedition for provisioning the sledge parties.
- Great Britain. Admiralty. Committee on Scurvy.
- Date:
- [1877?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Commitee appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to enquire into the causes of the outbreak of scurvy in the recent Arctic Expedition ; the adequacy of the provision made by the Admiralty in the way of food, medicine, and medical comforts ; and the propriety of the orders given by the commander o[f] the Expedition for provisioning the sledge parties. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![LIME JUICE. 5. Carrying it Sledging, and Concentrating it, continued—■ Captain Hobson— Suggestion to take it in capsules to prevent necessity of thawing -water, 3447-8 ; doubt whether the acid would destroy the case, 3449. Dr. Toms— Possibility of carrying it as a lozenge, 3628-9 ; advantage of doing so, 3633 ; an objection to carrying it is the additional weight, 3724 ; advantage of abstracting water, 3725. Dr. Scott— Difficulty in taking it in its present form, 3915 ; objections to taking it, its freezing, brittleness of its bottles, its weight, and fuel required, 4017. Mr. Ede— One bottle broke from frost, but it was carried all the same from Assistance, 4072 ; about eight gallons the ration for nine men for eighty days, 4085-9 ; it should be carried sledging, 4121 ; want of fuel no insuperable difficulty, 4122. Dr. Lyall— It was carried from Assistance sledging in a tin case, 4304 ; there is a difficulty in using it in sledging, 4296 ; possibility of its being carried in capsules and mixing it with rations, 4309-11 ; thus obviating necessity of thaw- ing water for it, 4310. Dr. Macdonalcf^- By drying the extract it is soluble in water at freezing, 4935-6 i can be reduced to one-tenth its bulk without altering the chemical composition, 4940; possibility of this, 4948 ; he has made lozenges by concentrating lime juice and mixing sugar with it, 4938-47; practicability of their being taken in the arctic, being easily carried, 4943; but responsibility of trusting to what has not been tried, 4943 the lozenges found to have retained the original constitution, 4944; change made in the sugar on mixing extract of lime juice with it, 4947-8 ; advantage of a conical bottle as not likely to break, 4937. Dr. De Chaumont— Practicability of earning it in the form of a lozenge, 5106-10, 5114 ; doubt whether reduced lime juice would act as well as citric acid lozenges, 5114-15. Dr. Pavy— Evaporating it to dryness would destroy its eheiuical pro- perties and its antiscorbutic value, 5223-4 ; unsafe to rely on such a preparation to keep off scurvy, 5226-7 ; if enough heat has been employed to coagulate its albu- minous principle, 5227-8 ; possibility of evaporating it in vacuo, and making it easily portable, 5226-31, 5239-41; to what extent heat mav be employed, 5239-42. Mr. Busk- It might have been taken in a concentrated form, or as citric acid, though these substitutes are doubtful, 5249, 5261 ; and but little hope of their success unless pre- pared in vacuo, 5261 ; their efficacy can only be deter- mined by experiments on a large scale, 5262 ; objections to the weight of the fuel necessary for melting it, if carried in cold weather, 5260 ; want of success of Dr. Lind's rob, 5249, 5261. Dr. Guy— Possibility of concentrating it, as shown by that frozen in Polaris Bay, 5394 ; advantage of carrying it in the form of a lozenge, if its essential parts are retained, 5396-9 ; many extracts obtained by evaporation in vacuo at low temperatures, without losing their properties, 5397 ; possibility of the properties of lime juice being preserved if so prepared, 5398. Dr. Buzzard— Possibility of concentrating it, 5515. Dr. Dickson— It might have been concentrated into a denser form, 5626, 5704 ; or mixed with rum, 5628, 5680 ; the mixture would be palatable, 5682 ; and would partly prevent freezing, 5683-4 ; doubt about concentrating it into a solid form without losing its properties, 5701; would be valuable in the form of a lozenge, if possible, 5705-6. Dr. Barnes— Possibility of concentrating it, but difficulty of experiment on men, 7131 ; danger of trying lozenges without experiments, 7142 ; a sailor too valuable to risk trying them on, 7142 ; chemical opinions not sufficient, 7143. Color-Sergeant Wood— How they could have carried it, 7986. Dr. Munro— Possibility of carrying it even frozen, 8616 ; or in a con - densed form, 8618-19; condensed preparations should not be trusted to till well tried, 8699. Dr. Rae— Suggestion to carry it in flat bottles, 8761. Sir A. Armstrong— No difficulties of carriage should prevent its being taken, 9178 ; or have prevented its being sent sledging in the late expedition, 9008 ; suggestion to mix it with rum, tea, or pemmican, 9008, 9016, 9093 ; it can be carried sledging and used in very low temperatures, 9091-2; sug- LIME JUICE. 5. Carrying, Sledging, and Concentrating it, continued— gestions for carrying it in wooden breakers or tins, 9093-4 ; objection to eating it in a frozen state, 9095 ; should be mixed with rum and tea, 8096; objection to trying lozenges, extracts, or any substitute on seamen without full previous trial, 9098, 9103-5, 9109, 9171, 9179-85 ; in spite of the trials being chemically satisfactory, 9100-3 ; and pro- bably a desirable mode of carrying it, 9105 ; possibility of trying experiments, 9183-4. LORIMER (or LORRIMER), WILLIAM, A.B., of Alert— Dr. Golan— Brought back ill of scurvy, after accompanying Lieutenant Giffard, 1895-9. Lieutenant Giffard— His case, 1220; lime juice taken when illness occurred, 1222. LOWER DECK. [See Ventilation.] MALIC ACID. [See Acid.'] MARINES, ROYAL. [See Selection of Men, Discipline.! MEAT. [See also Diet.) Subheads 1. General. 2. Recent Expedition. 3. Eormer Expeditions. ' 4. Musk Ox. Papers with Report. Reports on Salt Beef, Salt Pork, Ox-cheek, and Collops of recent expedition. JtScidence. 1. General— Sir G. Nares— Salt meat should never be used on arctic service, 34 ; but preserved meat continuously used is insipid, 34-35; salt meat more pleasing, 35 ; preserved meat inferior to fresh and to pemmican, 43 ; in no expedition have crew eaten 1^ lb. of meat daily, 42; advantage of fresh meat in scurvy, 44. Lieutenant Rawson— Preserved meat not a sufficient antiscorbutic, 1119. Commander Aldrich— Suggestion to take some preserved meat sledging, as a change on pemmican, 1303. Dr. Colan— Advantage of and preference for hot meat, 2099-2101. Dr. Coppinger— Superiority of seal meat to musk-ox flesh, 2920-21; it is preferred by the Esquimaux, 2921. Captain Hamilton— Reasons for preference for salt over preserved meat, 3075 ; preserved meat more freely used in recent expedition than formerly, disadvantage of this, 3041. Captain Hobson— Game should not be relied on, 3496. Dr. Lyall— Preserved meat rather insipid, 4411. Mr. Piers— Salt meat conducive to scurvy, and should be avoided, 4555-6. Dr. Macdonald— Instance of benefit-of salt meat with scorbutic symptoms, 4851; immunity of Captain Tyson's party perhaps clue to seal meat, 4925-6. Dr. De Chaumont— Eresh meat antiscorbutic, 5130-32. Dr. Pavy— Value of seal meat and other fresh meat in curing scurvy, 5153 ; raw meat more efficacious than cooked, 5155-6 ; chemical composition of it being changed, 5157-8 ; fresh meat induces a better state of nourishment, and ranks next to fresh vegetables in antiscorbutic properties, 5170 ; greater liability to scurvy under salt meat, 5218 ; it being deficient in fresh juice, 5219 ; preserved meat retains the elements of its nutritive properties, and is not injurious, but is not so good for maintaining health, 5220-21. Mr. Busk- Raw meat has antiscorbutic properties, 5271-5. Dr. Buzzard— Preserved meat not so nutritious as fresh, 5471 ; desire of the men in the Crimea for fresh meat, 5471; cooked inferior to raw in antiscorbutic property, 5510 ; the salted is not an active agent in production of scurvy, but is less nutritious than fresh, 5491-4. Dr. Dickson— Pork much relished by seamen, and very nutritious, it should be issued with preserved meat, 5662 ; fresh meat is antiscorbutic, it maintains the standard of health, 5695-6 ; immunity of Polaris party perhaps due to seal meat, 5702-3. Dr. Barnes— Raw meat most antiscorbutic, as cooking coagulates the albumen, 7122-3 ; immunity of Polaris party perhaps due to it, 7122-5 ; doubts whether any people live for long on raw meat, 7128 ; but it might be an equivalent for fresh vegetables, 7148.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24397945_0538.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
