On the nature, cause, and prevention of scurvy / by Alfred B. Garrod, M.D.

  • Garrod, Alfred Baring, 1819-1907.
Date:
[1848]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature, cause, and prevention of scurvy / by Alfred B. Garrod, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    habit, may favour the occurrence of this disease; yet no one of them can be regarded as the real cause, which must be sought for in tlie natui'e of the food. This is fully proved in the writings of Lind, Trotter, Budd, Christison, Curran, Eitchie, &c. It appears also, that it is due to the absence of some essential ingi-edient in the food, and not fi'om the presence of any noxious substance ; for the use of salt in lai-ge quantities is certainly not a cause, many of the most severe cases of disease having occurred where no such diet had been used, and sea Avater has never been found to aggi-avate the s;yTnp- toms of the sufferers. The causes of the disease are thus reduced to one of the two following, :— Istj To the absence or deficiency of some organic substance in the food. 2(/, To the absence or deficiency of some inorganic constituent. There are many facts to support the opinion, that it is some organic constituent that is deficient in the food, and this is usually believed to be of an acid nature; for it is generally found that scuny has appeared when there has been a want of succulent vegetables, and that the disease is easily cured whenever they can be supphed in abundance: these succulent vegetables mostly contain some organic acid. It has also been found that finiits, from the order Aurantiace£E, containing much of such acids, are highly anti-scor- butic. But there are many objections to this view; for although fi*uits and vegetables containing these acids ai*e exceedingly useful, yet the acids themselves, when sepai'ated, are not so, and I am informed, on good authority, that citric acid has been used and found not to be anti-scorbutic ; the same remark applies to acetic acid. Again, car- nivorous animals live entirely on meat without suffering from such disease, and infants will sometimes live for eighteen months on milk and not show any scorbutic symptoms. Milk is also fomid to act as an excellent reniedy in scui'vy, although, fi*esh, it contains no organic acid. These facts are therefore sufficient to show, that it is not to the absence or deficiency of organic acids in the food that scurvy is due. Dr Christison thinks that the main peculiarity in scorbutic diet is the deficiency in the quantity of animal nitrogenized principles, and that this may be effectually coimteracted by milk, and other nitro- genized articles of food fi'om the animal world. He also thinks that potatoes may owe theii' anti-scorbutic properties to the albinnen con- tained in them; but if we only examine the diets under which some Eatients become scorbutic, and others under which they remain in a ealthy condition, we must be at once con-v inced that it is not fi'oni the want of nitrogenized princi])les that the disease arises; for we obsen-e in the diet of sailors who become scorbutic, abundance of these principles, and in many of our union workhouse and prison dietaa-ies, they are veiy much reduced in quantity; yet no sucli chs- ease arises when a few pounds of potatoes arc added per week, although the amount of albuminous matters contained in them is far