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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    from sufficient to malce the total quantity of such principles equal to that found in many scorbutic diets. A^ain, if tliis theory were true, why should so veiy small an amount ot finiits, and succulent veget- ables, act in so sm-prising a manner in cming the disease ? Some have supposed that vegetable acids are not required, but that there exists a something in fresh vegetables which acts by a kind of catal;ytic power, and which is necessaiy to cause certain changes to take place in the body by its presence; but as there is no proof of such an hypothesis, we wiU not stop to consider it. We have not, then, found that the absence or deficiency of any organic constituent of the food can be proved to be the real cause of scurvy. The analyses of blood hitherto made, have not thrown any light on the cause or nature of this disease. Recent examinations have shovra that the blood is not in a dissolved state as Avas formerly supposed, but that the globules are normal in ap]iearance, and the clot firm, and frequently buffed and cupped. Tlie fibrin has been found in excess by Busk, Becquerel and Eodier. I have also ob- served a small fimi clot in scorbutus, sometimes also it has been cupped and buffed. The red globiiles and organic matters of serum have been generally observed to be deficient, so that the blood ap- pears to be impoiieiished in its nature. The saline matters in the serum have been found in about the normal proportions. In the analyses A\hich I made—one of healthy, the other of scorbutic blood—I found in the former 100 parts of ch'ied serum gaA-e 7*609 of inorganic matters—in the latter, 8*125; but if the density of the sermn in scurvy is less than in health, the 100 parts of di'ied matters corresponded to a larger amount of serum. Finding that all the theories of scmny hitherto advanced were imperfect, I was led to examine more minutely the composition of food mider the use of which scm*v)^ was capable of occm'ring, and also of such substances as had been proved beyond doubt to be anti- scorbutic, and afterwards to seek for the absence or deficiency of certain normal substances in the blood; and from siich examina- tions I was led to the following conclusions :— 1st, That in all scorbutic diets, Potash exists in much smaller ([uantities than in those which ai-e capable of maintaining health. 2nd, That all substances proved to act as anti-scorbutics contain a large amount of Potash. 3d, That in scuny the blood is deficient in Potash, and the amount of that substance thrown out by the kidneys less than that which occurs in health. 4tli, That scorbutic patients will recover wlien Potash is added to their food, the other constituents remaining as befoi'c, both in (piantity and quality, and without the use of succident vegetables or milk. .■)tli. T!i;it the theory which ascribes the cause of sc\u'vv to a