SCURVY.
BY PHILIP S. WALES, M.D.
SYNONYMS.—French, Scorbut; Spanish, Escorbuto; Italian, Scorbuto, are the various terms in the Romance languages used to designate this disease, derived from the Middle-Latin word scorbutus, which is evidently an offspring of one of the early Gotho-Teutonic dialects, perhaps of the Low German word Schärbunk, Danish Scorbuck, or the Old Dutch Scheurbuyck, from scheren, to separate or tear, and bunk, the belly. These terms originally denoted rupture of the belly, and afterward scurvy, or scorvy, as it is found in the English dialect. It has also been traced to the Sclavonic word scorb, disease. The first is now believed to be the true etymology.
DEFINITION.—Scurvy is an acquired condition of the body whose essential feature is a perversion of nutrition, which gradually arises from prolonged employment of food deficient in succulent or fresh vegetable matter, and progresses uniformly to a fatal issue, in a longer or shorter time, if the dietetic errors remain uncorrected. This condition becomes manifest by a change in the complexion to a dull yellowish or earthy tint, lassitude, marked decrease in the muscular power, depression of spirits and mental hebetude, breathlessness on the slightest exertion, minute flecks at the roots of the hairs, especially those of the legs; and, later, hemorrhagic effusion into the skin, forming blotches and spots of varying sizes and aspects, which may finally slough and lead to obstinate ulceration; sponginess of the gums, which bleed easily and break down into a detritus that impresses a malodorous taint upon the breath; ecchymotic staining of mucous and serous surfaces, and, in advanced stages of the disease, effusions of bloody serum or of blood into the cavities and tissues of the body.
HISTORY.—Obscure passages in certain of the ancient medical classics (Hippocrates, Celsus) and historical works (Pliny, Strabo) have been considered as descriptive of scurvy, but the earliest trustworthy accounts are to be found in the writings of the thirteenth century. Jacob de Vitry describes an epidemic which occurred among the troops of Count Saarbrücken besieging Damietta in 1218, and Sire de Joinville another epidemic among the troops of Louis IX. lying before the same town in 1249. On both occasions the sufferings of the men were inexpressible and the mortality fearful. The disease was directly traceable to defective supplies of fresh vegetable food, aided by exposure to wet and cold weather, fatigue, and mental depression.
The almost total neglect of horticulture in Europe during the Middle Ages, especially in its more sterile northern portions, the habitual diet of salted, smoked, and dried flesh and fish, and the prolonged spells of cold and damp weather of this region, were conditions most favorable to the development of scurvy, and these regions were the very first in which its devastating effects were early observed and recorded. In the first half of the fifteenth century it prevailed epidemically in the north of Europe and almost everywhere endemically, more especially in the countries bordering on the Baltic and North Seas, although the largest and richest cities were frequently afflicted in the severest manner in consequence of imperfect food-supplies and the wretched sanitary conditions under which the inhabitants lived (Fabricius). The long voyages and imperfect diet of crews of ships furnished a large quota of harrowing nautical experiences with the scurvy, commencing with Vasco da Gama's voyage to India in 1497, and running up to 1812. In this interval it was all but universal on long voyages, both on single ships and in fleets, in the mercantile marine and in the navy.
In 1798, through the better insight into the causes of the disease, and especially through the exertions of Dr. James Lind in ameliorating the dietary of British sailors, it was practically stamped out of the navy or restricted to isolated occurrences. The influence of the success thus achieved was not lost upon the navies of other nations nor upon the growing fleets engaged in commerce, as the disease has become less and less frequent, constituting at present but a very trifling proportion of the diseases incident to seafaring people. This remarkable result is in part attributable to the fact that the chief maritime nations have enacted beneficent laws intended to compel the owners and masters of merchant vessels to observe certain sanitary and hygienic measures that protect the crews from scurvy. The number of cases returned in the English navy for 1881, in an aggregate of 52,487 cases of all diseases, was 4; in the Prussian navy, 3 in 8659; in the Austrian navy, 27 in 8096; in the U.S. navy, none in 13,387. Thus, in a grand total of all diseases in the chief naval services of the world of 82,629 there were only 34 cases of scurvy—a ratio of .41 per 1000. In the mercantile marine 62 cases occurred in 32,613 cases of all diseases, of which 43 were on the Pacific coast: this gives a ratio of 1.9 per 1000. Altogether, the 115,242 cases produced only 96 of scurvy—a ratio of .83 per 1000. The difference in favor of the naval over the marine service is accounted for by the greater attention paid to the health and comfort of the men in the former.
The U.S. steamer Jeannette spent two winters in the Arctic region, and had a single case of scurvy. The U.S. steamer Rodgers was wrecked, and the crew, during its sojourn of six months among the Siberian tribes, suffered severely.
The operations of armies in recent times have not furnished the frightful mortality which, from neglect of sanitary precautions, formerly afflicted them. During the rebellion of 1861-64, out of 807,000 cases there were but 47,000 of scurvy, or 5.8 per cent., with a death-rate of 16 per cent. The French army1 of 103,770 men during the Crimean struggle had 27,000 cases of scurvy, or 26.0 per cent., with a death-rate of 1.5 per cent. In the Bulgarian campaign of 1877-78, in an army of 300,000 strong, there were, according to Pirigoff,2 87,989 cases of disease, of which 4234, or 4.8 per cent., were frankly-expressed cases of scurvy. This gave a proportion of only 1.4 per cent. of the entire force—a result entirely due to the maintenance, both before and during the war, of a high standard of health.
1 Scrive, Rélation Médico-Chirurgicale de la Campagne de l'Orient, Paris, 1857.
2 Krieg Sanitäts-Wesen, Leipzig, 1882.
ETIOLOGY.—Perhaps no disease has furnished a more fertile field for etiological conjectures than scurvy. The father of medicine ranked the disease in one place among those presenting enlarged spleens, and in another with the twisted bowels. He recognized a putrescence of the humors as the underlying factor—a theory that held sway until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The disease attracted wide attention in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from its frequent epidemic and endemic occurrence in various parts of the north of Europe, and was believed to be restricted to cold and particularly wet districts—a view that has been long since abandoned with a better knowledge of its habitats. It has been encountered alike in high latitudes north and south, amidst sterile wastes covered with eternal snows and ice, in the temperate zones and in the burning plains of the equatorial regions of America and Africa.
Sex has no predisposing influence, and the fact that more males than females are affected during an epidemic simply indicates that the former are more exposed to the ordinary determining causes. During the siege of Paris, according to the tables of Lasègue and Legroux, there was a very large excess of male cases, and Hayem's figures show only 6 women in 26 cases.
Scurvy has been observed at all ages from infancy to advanced periods of life; it is believed by certain writers that adolescence is less predisposed than adult age.
The epidemic feature of the disease led many to the opinion that it was contagious—a view that retained its hold for many years. It was also considered to be of a miasmatic character, which, with the previous feature, seemed to assimilate it in nature with typhus fever and other diseases of the miasmatic contagious group. This view had a vigorous advocate in Villemin, who in 1874 read a lengthy paper before the Royal Academy of Medicine in its support. His arguments were specious, inconclusive, and inaccurate, the weight both of facts and authority being decisively against his view. Its occurrence among members of the same family led a few to regard it as hereditary, and it was thought to be transmissible from the mother to the recently-born as well as to nursing infants. The depressing influence of certain emotions, fear, anxiety, and nostalgia, upon the functions of nutrition has, as might have been anticipated, been noted as contributing indirectly to the manifestation of epidemics of scurvy in the presence of the essential determining dietetic causes.
Scurvy cannot be regarded, as Lhéridon-Cremorne3 has argued, as the last term of nostalgia, the other alleged causes being secondary; nor as the immediate result of mental depression, as Gueit4 believed from his experience in the ship Henry IV. during his service on the blockade in the Black Sea in 1858, because the disease first invaded those laboring under nostalgia. The currency of such opinions may be readily explained by the fact that ordinarily depressing mental influences occur under the same conditions as those associated with scurvy—viz. during sieges, after defeat, in prisons, and in workhouses; and, further, the mental phenomena ordinarily occur as prodromes of the disease long before the pathognomonic phenomena present themselves. Out of these facts grew the mistake of regarding the mental change as causative instead of consecutive. Murray went farther and regarded mental despondency as at once cause and effect, and long ago scurvy was compared to hypochondriacal diseases.5 It may be concluded from the recorded epidemics that no degree of mental exhilaration could ward off the disease in presence of the determining causes, nor any degree of mental despondency induce it with proper alimentation.
3 Thèse de Paris.
4 Thèse de Montpellier, 1858.
5 Dolée, 1684.
The various qualities or changes in the atmosphere were regarded individually or collectively at various times as the determining causes. It was supposed that the air might become impregnated with putrid exhalations from various sources, as the holds of ships, or rendered impure by the vapors of the sea. The foul air of crowded habitations, vessels, or cities was appealed to, or the common cause was sought either in its temperature or humidity, or in both. The earlier observers gave prominence to cold as a determining cause of scurvy, and especially when combined with dampness, and hence its frequency in the north of Holland, Brabant, Belgium, Russia, and Germany. This was the current view in the seventeenth century. On the other hand, with equal confidence the disease has been supposed to be determined by excessively high temperatures, and its occurrence in India, South Africa, and the equatorial regions has been alleged in support.
Personal habits have been in the eyes of earlier observers an all-sufficient cause, and thus excessive exertion attended with fatigue and exhaustion has been considered the cause of several severe outbreaks on shore and at sea. In contrast with this opinion we find the English physicians placing great stress upon indolent habits and lack of exercise as a predisposing if not a powerfully determining cause.
The use of tobacco was inveighed against by Maynwaring and Harvey as a powerfully morbific cause, while to the lack of the same narcotic its occurrence was ascribed by Van der Mye. More recently it has been referred by Fabre6 to vaso-motor disturbance due to a miasm.
6 Des Rélations Pathogéniques des Troubles Nerveux, etc., Paris, 1880.
In the drink and food, however, most observers have sought the exciting causes of scurvy. Instances have been reported where the disease seems to have depended upon the use of impure water, etc. The imagination has been tortured to seek in some quality or sort of food the specific origin of scurvy. With regard to quantity, it may be stated that in severe famines scurvy may or may not occur according as the food, though scant, is in due proportions of animal and vegetable, though it is true that the ordinary conditions of a famine preclude the procurement of succulent vegetables. The quality of the food has nothing further to do with the production of scurvy than by impairing the general health, for it has often happened that putrid food has been long used without scorbutic symptoms arising. The kind of food is equally innocent, although various special articles have been charged with specific activity. The frequency of scurvy in Brabant was attributed by Ronseus to the use of aquatic birds; Sherwin and Nitsch assigned the same peculiarity to a free use of fish; and Henry Ellis to the too free use of spirits. Even the generally widespread and much-esteemed article of diet sugar was in disrepute with Willis. The too free use of salted meats has been often accused of causing the trouble. The fat rising on water in which salt provisions were boiled was considered by Cook and Vancouver to be of particular pernicious effect, and even the copper vessels in which they were cooked were condemned by Travis as able to communicate the scorbutic poison to the food. To the milk of animals browsing on verdure upon which pernicious dew had fallen was referred an epidemic which occurred in Silesia in 1591. Diseased potatoes were considered sufficient to determine scurvy in Ireland and Scotland by O'Brien.
The scurvy occurring on land was deemed to be different from that occurring at sea, and its frequency afloat brought into unmerited disrepute the sailor's salt diet, and its saline materials were even considered the chief offending cause. This idea was rejected by numerous observers, who assigned as the chief causative rôle in scurvy deficiency in vegetable food, especially of the fresh, succulent variety. The particular constituent of this sort of food, so powerful in warding off scurvy and of curing it when prevention has failed, has baffled discovery. Dr. Aldridge attributed it to mineral elements generally. Dr. Garrod singled out the potassic salts as the particular one to which the specific action must be attributed; but neither of these views has gained in credit. From all the facts, both positive and negative, we may reasonably assume that the essential dietetic error leading to the development of scurvy, in the immense majority if not in all cases, consists in a deficiency in the variety of food; that is to say, there is not the requisite proportion of animal matter with a diversity of vegetable substances. No single natural order contains plants that supply all the elements essential to the nutrition of the body and the right composition of the blood. The graminaceous and leguminous articles of food, for instance, are numerous, but not various; they all afford the same or analogous albuminous elements, which have about the same nutrient value as the corresponding substances in animal food, and hence health and vigor cannot be sustained on a diet of flesh, combined with wheat, rice, and oatmeal or with beans and peas, or with all of them together. Outbreaks of scurvy have occurred on shipboard, where the ration is made up principally of these articles; as in Anson's ship, when supplied with an abundance of fresh animal, farinaceous, and leguminous foods. It is clear, therefore, that in order to obtain a variety of materials required in nutrition, we must resort to several of the natural groups, those particularly which comprise the succulent vegetables and fruits.
MORBID ANATOMY.—The bodies of persons dead of scurvy are, in most cases, much emaciated, because the quantity as well as the quality of the food has usually been defective. When the food-supply is abundant and only lacking in the elements indispensable in warding off scurvy, the bodily weight is not noticeably decreased, although the characteristic tissue-changes of scurvy are present. This was noticeable in the cases recorded by Trotter of negro slaves dying of scurvy while their bodies presented a fat and sleek appearance. Rigor mortis usually sets in early, and chemical decomposition invades the tissues speedily. The skin presents the discolorations and blotchings observed during life. The subcutaneous connective tissues are soaked with serous exudations, especially in the lower extremities, and in various localities are infiltrated with bloody or fibrinous extravasations. The same changes occasionally affect the muscles, the infiltration occurring beneath the fibrous sheaths and into the intermuscular spaces, and the fibres are more or less torn. These effusions occur most frequently about the knees, the elbows, and the pterygoid muscles of the jaw.
The bones are sometimes necrosed by the mechanical influence of copious effusion beneath the periosteum, forming nodes of varying sizes and obstructing the supply of blood. The joints are occupied by serous or bloody transudations; their synovial investment is destroyed in part, so that the cartilage is exposed; and the latter not infrequently is softened, and even separated from the subjacent osseous connections. Sometimes the morbid changes occurring in the joints are the results of disease in the subcutaneous connective tissues surrounding them.
The muscular system presents marked changes. The muscles undergo fatty degeneration in a remarkable degree. The changes begin first in the lumbar muscles, the fibres losing their striations and sarcolemma, and finally being replaced by granular and fatty matter.
The brain has been found in rare instances the seat of softening and infiltration, and the ventricles may contain serous or bloody fluid. Similar effusions have also been noted in the arachnoid. Most frequently, however, the brain and its membranes present an anæmic appearance, there is less blood than natural in the vessels, and the tissues are pale. Very often no changes whatever are observed.
The heart is smaller than normal, relaxed, and flabby, its fibres easily broken, and a cut surface presents the yellowish aspect of fatty degeneration in certain parts, with occasional extravasations located in the cardiac walls. The valves of the heart are relaxed and illy adapted to accurate closure. In certain recent cases soft coagula or dark fluid blood, and in others firmly coagulated blood, are found in the cavities; in those which have been prolonged the blood is more likely to be found fluid and the coagula diffluent. The endocardium is often blotched to a greater or less extent by sanguineous imbibition. The pericardium often contains serum, and in the worst cases is inflamed, lacerable, and contains bloody effusions. The inner surface of the great vessels at the base of the heart is stained by imbibition.
The respiratory organs are variously affected. The mucous membrane lining the nose, larynx, and trachea is generally pale and flecked with extravasations of a dark-red color; more or less frothy fluid, tinged with blood, is present in these passages, and occasionally oedema of the glottis is encountered. The lungs are, as a rule, infiltrated with a bloody serosity, particularly in those cases with renal complication, or with a fibrinous or bloody exudation. The posterior portions of the lobes often present evidences of hypostatic congestion, or even of gangrene, and in the latter case the tissue is easily friable and emits a disagreeable odor. Their surfaces are mottled with superficial discolored patches of varying size and outline. The lungs may, on the other hand, be found pale, with empty collapsed vessels and with little or no effusion. The pleural cavities commonly contain a serous fluid, or, in rare cases, a copious effusion of blood. Traces of inflammation and discoloration by sanguineous staining are traceable on the pleural surfaces.
The digestive organs furnish strongly marked lesions. The mouth presents the most constant scorbutic feature, a stomatitis in which the gums are infiltrated, spongy, livid, and the seat of fatty degeneration; the teeth are loosened or have already fallen out. The stomach and small intestines are thin-walled, and the mucous membrane is often softened, and in places ulcerated; similar changes have been noted in the solitary glands. Follicular ulceration of the large intestine occurs, with softening and infiltration of the mucous membrane. Hemorrhagic effusions into the mucous membrane, forming stippling, flecks, or patches, occur in various degrees along the whole extent of the alimentary canal. The pancreas is occasionally found softened and containing hemorrhagic effusions.
The kidneys are, as a rule, found in the normal condition in cases in which albumen has been observed in the urine. Occasionally they are engorged, with infarction of the cortical substance, and the mucous lining softened and thickened and covered with blood-tinged mucus, or they may present various degrees of parenchymatous degeneration. The ureters and bladder sometimes present ecchymotic spots, and the contained urine is mingled with blood.
The liver is always more or less altered by fatty degeneration, and at times replete with blood and softened, and its surface ecchymotic. The spleen is occasionally greatly enlarged, and its tissues very lacerable, laden with blood, and infarcted.
PATHOLOGY.—The essential character of scurvy consists in perverted nutrition, in which the blood undergoes such peculiar and profound changes that its fitness for the maintenance and renewal of the various tissues and organs is impaired; hence the nervous depression, loss of muscular power and tonicity of tissues, and the transudation of the blood or of its constituent parts.
The processes of secondary assimilation are chiefly at fault, leading to the blood-changes, and through these to the textural lesions. Primary assimilation remains intact, as the bodily weight is little altered as long as the food is in sufficient quantity. This loss of nutritive balance between the blood and tissue is due to the absence of certain elements furnished by fresh vegetable matter. What these are, and how their absence acts in inducing this disturbance, have not yet been determined; we only know that the mysterious harmony of the vital, chemical, and physical relations which exist between the blood and tissues in health is deranged by their absence.
Endless explanatory surmises and assumptions have been proffered. The earlier explanations involve either the Galenical theory of putrefaction of the fluids and humors, a breaking down of the blood-corpuscles, or the later chemical theories of superabundance or absence of certain salts, sulphur, etc., and hence there were an acid scurvy, an alkaline scurvy, a muriatic scurvy, etc.
The frequent effusions of blood in scurvy led Andral to suspect that the chief peculiarity in scorbutic blood was the decrease of fibrin; which was in perfect accord with a theory that he had formed that this change was the uniform cause of passive hemorrhage. Magendie had already given experimental support to this conjecture by inducing in animals phenomena analogous to those of scurvy by the injection into the veins of defibrinated blood or of alkaline solutions. Andral7 believed his views confirmed when in 1841 he analyzed on two occasions the blood of scorbutic patients and found the fibrin reduced to 1.6 parts per 1000. Similar results were obtained by Eckstein and Frémy. On the other hand, the blood was analyzed by Busk, about the same time, in three well-marked cases of scurvy that occurred on the Dreadnaught hospital-ship, and in all of them the fibrin was in excess of the normal amount, the least being 4.5 and the greatest 6.5 parts per 1000. In perfect accord with Busk's results were the analyses of the blood of five scorbutic females, communicated in a note to the Academy of Sciences in 1847 by Becquerel and Rodier. In no case was the fibrin diminished, but in some it was sensibly increased. In a subsequent case Andral found that the fibrin, instead of being less, exceeded the physiological mean, reaching 4.4 parts, and he concluded that a diminution of this element was not a necessary and common occurrence, but only an effect—a result of prior morbid modifications, and a consequence which was produced more or less frequently according to the severity and duration of the disease. Parmentier and Déyeux found the blood of three scorbutics to resemble inflammatory blood in respect to fibrin, while Frick obtained in one analysis 7.6 parts of fibrin and Leven 4.3 parts.
7 Essai d'hématologie pathologique.
In mild cases of scurvy neither the color, the alkalinity, nor the coagulability of the blood differs from that of blood in health, though Wood alleges that the clot is loose and cotton-like, and Canstatt that its coagulability, in consequence of the large proportion of saline matters, is diminished. In Busk's cases the separation of the clot and serum was as perfect, and took place as rapidly, as in healthy blood, and in two of them the blood was both buffed and cupped, as it was also in Leven's cases. In two of the most severe of Becquerel's cases the blood coagulated firmly, and in a slight case the clot was dark and loose. The albumen of the blood shows no marked change as regards its quantity. The five analyses of Becquerel and Rodier showed the average amount of organic matters of the serum to be 64.3 parts in 1000, the smallest being 56.2 and the largest 69.2 parts. 1000 parts of the serum of the same cases gave an average of 72.1 parts of organic matter. Frick's single case gave 87.045 parts per 1000, and the average of Busk's was 78.2 parts, while Chotin and Bouvier obtained only 62.3 parts. The last-mentioned writers have recorded a fact in connection with the physical characters of scorbutic blood that deserves notice: the blood in one case did not coagulate at the usual temperature (about 158° F.), but required a temperature some degrees higher for that purpose. The red corpuscles in all the foregoing cases were notably diminished, the largest amount given being 117.078 parts per 1000, while the lowest was 47.8 parts. In Andral's second case the globules had decreased to 44.4 parts per 1000, the lowest amount yet recorded.
The alkalinity of the blood seems not to be changed, although Chotin and Bouvier noticed a slight increase. The saline constituents do not vary greatly from the normal standard. The average amount in the cases of Becquerel and Rodier and Busk was 8.1 per 1000, the smallest being 5.5 parts and the largest 11.5. In Ritchie's two analyses the proportion of saline matters is given as 6.44 and 6.82 parts per 1000. Opitz and Schneider have found less than the physiological mean. In Frick's case the amount was 8.8, the iron being 0.721 parts per 1000, and 0.782 to 127 parts of globules; lime 0.110, chlorides 6.846, and phosphates 1.116 parts per 1000. The iron was in excess of that in the normal blood, but in Becquerel's cases the mean was 0.381—less than the normal. The proportion of iron in Duchet's cases was respectively 0.393, 0.402, and 0.476 parts, giving a mean of 0.423 parts per 1000, which nearly approximates the normal. Garrod in one analysis of the blood found a deficiency of the potassium salts, upon which he erected his well-known theory of the etiology of the disease. It is an interesting fact that in the physiological state the quantity of sodium chloride is not subject to variation, any excess introduced with the food being thrown off by the kidneys. The quantity in the urine bears a relation to the amount introduced as food, but the proportion in the blood is constant.
The quantity of water in the blood has been found to be increased in all the analyses which have been made. Chotin and Bouvier estimated water and loss at 831.1; in Frick's case it was 791.69 parts per 1000; and in Becquerel's five cases it was put at 807.7, 810.9, 811, 813.7, and 854.0 parts per 1000, respectively. In Busk's three cases the lowest amount was 835.9 and the highest 849.9 parts per 1000. The specific gravity of the defibrinated blood was in all cases low in comparison with the normal standard (1057), the average in Becquerel and Rodier's cases being 1047.2, the lowest 1083.3, and the highest 1051.7. In the single observation of Chotin and Bouvier it was 1060. The specific gravity of the serum was also less than normal (1027), the average of four of Becquerel's analyses giving 1023.8, the lowest 1020.8, and the highest 1025.5. Busk gives 1025 in one case and 1028 in another.
The results of the most recent analyses, those of Chalvet, are shown in the following table, in which scorbutic blood is contrasted with that of a healthy, robust female:
| Scorbutic blood. | Healthy blood. | |
| Water | 848.492 | 772.225 |
| Solid matters | 151.508 | 220.775 |
| Dry clot | 140.194 | 209.000 |
| Albumen | 72.304 | 68.717 |
| Fibrin | 4.342 | 2.162 |
| Globules | 63.548 | 138.121 |
| Extractive matter—by absolute alcohol | 10.312 | 8.013 |
| Extractive matter—by ether | 1.002 | 1.300 |
| Ashes of clot | 3.000 | 5.691 |
| Peroxide of iron of globules | 1.060 | 2.259 |
| Potassium of globules | 0.329 | 0.625 |
From the conflicting statements of various observers the following conclusions may be drawn: that in scorbutic blood water is in excess; that there is, on the one hand, a marked increase of the fibrin, and in a less degree of the albumen and extractive matters, while on the other hand there is a marked decrease of the globules and in a less degree of the mineral matters. On the authority of Chalvet it may be also stated that demineralization of the muscular tissue is a notable chemical feature in scurvy.
So far, microscopic examination has been entirely negative. Hayem8 found no appreciable alteration from healthy blood, and in this view Leven9 concurs; while Laboulbène10 notes the occurrence of an unusual number of white globules.
8 Mém. de la Société de Biologie.
9 Communication to the Académie des Sciences, 1871.
10 Epidemie de Scorbut.
Petrone Luigi11 injected scorbutic blood into the connective tissue of rabbits. In three instances the animals died, presenting on the ears distinct evidences of the formation of petechial extravasations. The viscera revealed everywhere bloody effusions of larger or smaller size. The spleen was enlarged and its parenchyma and capsule distended. In the blood were found oval, shining, spontaneously-moving corpuscles, which he regarded as the bearers of the specific poison of scurvy.
11 Annali Univers. di Med. c. Chir., 10, 1880.
SYMPTOMS.—The symptoms of scurvy are insidiously and usually slowly developed under the influence of the efficient causes, and the disease runs a chronic course, often extending over five or six months, especially in cases in which the hygienic surroundings of the patient have been imperfectly or not at all rectified. In light cases the course is much shorter. A gradual alteration of the nutritive processes first occurs, until what might be called a scorbutic cachexia is established in a period varying from a few weeks to several months. The initial symptoms consist in the skin losing its color and tone and assuming a yellowish or earthy hue: it is relaxed, dry, unperspiring, and rough; in the legs particularly this roughness is very marked, and the skin, when rubbed, sheds an abundance of furfuraceous scales. The cutaneous follicles, markedly on the extensor aspect of the lower extremities, are prominent, similar in appearance and feel to the condition known as goose-flesh. Rouppe12 calls this the signum primum pathognomonicum. Dark-red or brownish flecks, of a circular outline and of varying but small size, not unlike flea-bites, appear on the face and limbs. The cutaneous circulation is feeble and the superficial warmth less than natural; slight depression of the atmospheric temperature produces a sensation of chilliness, and the feet and hands are cold. On assuming the erect posture the patient complains of headache and dizziness. The muscles are relaxed and soft to the feel, and a corresponding loss of vigor and strength is experienced by the patient, who is indisposed to exert himself in the performance of his customary duties and seeks repose and freedom from feelings of fatigue and languor in recumbency. This prostration is occasionally so extreme that the slightest efforts in attempting to stand or walk are attended with rapid action of the heart, accelerated respiratory movements, and a sense of suffocation and breathlessness. The general circulation is impaired; the heart acts feebly; the arteries are contracted; and the pulse is slow, small, and compressible.
12 De morbis navigantium.
The mental powers are equally impaired. The face wears a haggard appearance and depressed expression; gloomy forebodings of evil and disinclination to turn the attention to the usual mental pursuits are markedly present—a disinclination that may subsequently merge into complete apathy or indifference to passing events, or even into somnolency.
Pains in the legs, joints, and loins are early manifestations: they closely resemble those of rheumatism, for which they are often mistaken. The pains are not exacerbated at night, but, on the contrary, are often more severe by day. Not unfrequently lancinating pains in the muscles of the chest are complained of. The sleep is not disturbed until the disease has made some advance, when it becomes broken and is no longer refreshing.
The appetite is usually unimpaired in the early periods of the disease, and even throughout its course the condition of the mouth alone prevents the patient from indulging his desire for food, even, as is occasionally noticed, to voracity. There may be a yearning for certain articles of diet, principally those of an acid character; but, on the other hand, some cases present exactly the reverse condition—a disgust for food in general or for particular varieties; or the appetite may be vacillating, at one time craving and at another repelling nourishment. There is no noticeable change in the normal thirst, except on the occurrence of febrile complications, when it is increased. The gums do not, at this stage of the disease, present the livid, swollen appearance of fully-developed scurvy, but, on the contrary, are generally paler than usual, with a slight tumid or everted line on their free margins, and are slightly tender on pressure. The breath is commonly offensive, and the patient complains of a bad taste in the mouth. The tongue is flabby and large, though clean and pale, and the bowels are inclined to be sluggish.
This preliminary stage is followed, after varying intervals of time, by certain local phenomena which are quite characteristic of the disease. There is a marked tendency to extravasation of blood into the tissues, either causelessly or upon the infliction of slight injuries or wounds. Fibrinous exudations occur sooner or later into the gums, which become darkened in color, inflamed, swollen, spongy, and bleed upon the slightest touch or even spontaneously, and finally separate from the teeth. These results are due, in part, to the considerable amount of pressure to which these parts are subject in mastication, and it is a conspicuous fact that the gums of edentulous jaws remain free from these changes. In a few cases the gums are but slightly altered, perhaps oedematous only or pitting upon pressure, or they become the site of bloody extravasations. In severer examples, in later stages of the disease, these various alterations progress to an extreme degree, and the extravasation is so voluminous that the gums present great, fungous, lacerable excrescences, which may finally break down into a suppurating, brownish, and very fetid mass, communicating to the breath an odor of a most offensive character. In certain epidemics of scurvy, notably in that of Florence described by Cipriani, the lesions of the gums were absent. The rest of the mucous membrane of the mouth remains unaltered, or at most slightly ecchymotic. Samson and Charpentier13 in a large number of cases saw this but once, and in one of Leven's14 cases the fungous growth invaded the palatal mucous membrane, extending to the anterior pillars of the fauces. The salivary glands are enlarged and swollen; the tongue is imprinted with the form of the teeth, while the latter become encrusted with tartar and more or less concealed by the exuberant gums, or, becoming gradually loosened from the alveoli, finally drop out. The morbid process may extend to the bone itself, and necrosis and extensive exfoliation follow. Mastication is more or less painful, and often impossible, so that the patient is reduced to the necessity of prolonging life by the use of fluid or semi-solid food. Under the influence of appropriate treatment it is remarkable how rapidly (in from two to four weeks) these marked changes recede and the parts resume their normal condition, yet it occasionally occurs that permanent, callous thickening of the gums results.
13 Étude sur le Scorbut, 1871.
14 Une épidémie de Scorbut, p. 28, 1872.
In the progress of the disease effusions of blood under the skin are of early occurrence. They are at first located in the superficial stratum of the cutis or just beneath the epidermis, especially around the roots of the hair, and present themselves as roundish, bluish-red flecks, varying in size from that of a pin's head to that of a split pea, not effaceable by pressure with the tip of the finger, but slightly, if at all, elevated above the surface, and enduring for weeks together. The nutrition of the hair-follicles is impaired, so that the hairs are often either lost, broken, or distorted. These petechiæ fade in color with progressive improvement in the case, and finally disappear, leaving brownish-yellow discolorations. They first appear on the extremities, particularly the lower limbs, then on the face, and lastly on the trunk. At a later period extravasations of a larger size and more irregular form occur in the deeper layers of the derma. They vary in size from that of a finger-nail to blotches two or three inches in diameter; at first reddish in color and subsequently of a bluish red. When recession occurs under appropriate treatment, the color passes through various shades of violet, blue, green, and yellow, as in ordinary traumatic ecchymosis. Outpourings of blood also occur into the subcutaneous connective tissue, notably that of the legs, and in localities where connective tissue is particularly abundant and loose, as in the ham and axilla. The dispersion of blood in this tissue may be so considerable as to cause the legs from the knees down to present a uniform dark-blue coloration that in form may not inaptly be compared to a stocking. The upper extremities also suffer, usually on their inner side from the armpit down, the extravasation rarely reaching, however, to the hand. These extravasations may take place after the infliction of very slight injuries, as from blows or the pressure of hard bodies, or even from the mechanical effects of prolonged dependency of the limbs, as in riding on horseback. Extravasations of a similar nature are occasionally present in the connective tissues of the muscles themselves or between them, giving rise to swellings of various forms and dimensions. Nearly always along with the sanguineous effusions there is more or less oedema, usually beginning at the ankles and gradually extending upward; in some cases there are puffiness of the face and general anasarca, so that deep pits remain on pressure.
This profound impairment of nutrition of the skin continuing, in the worst cases blood is effused beneath the cuticle, forming blebs of varying size, which finally break and leave superficial ulcerated surfaces, that ultimately become covered with flabby, exuberant granulations, pouring out a purulent often offensive sanies and bleeding upon the slightest touch.
In some cases the ulceration begins in the petechiæ at the hair-roots, and a number of these, running together, form a large ulcer. The destruction of tissue by ulceration is disposed to spread more widely and deeply, and is often of a most intractable character. Old cicatrices are the first tissues in these cases to take on the ulcerative action. Certain muscles, chiefly those of the legs, and notably the gastrocnemii, the abdominal and pectoral muscles, the psoas magnus, and pterygoids, may become the seat of fibrinous extravasations, which finally change, by lapse of time, into hard, firm tumors, impairing the functions of those parts and leading to contractions of the limbs.
The symptoms in certain epidemics of extraordinary severity have displayed alterations in still deeper structures. Effusions occur between the periosteum and the bone, forming painful, hard, and resisting nodes of varying dimensions, especially along the course of the tibiæ, upon the scapulæ, and upon the maxillæ. In young persons the epiphyses are separated from the shaft of the long bones, and in other cases the ribs become necrosed and disarticulated from the sternum, producing a creaking noise during respiratory movements, as related by Poupart.15 This occurs mostly on one side and about the middle of the series, yet it has been noted to occur on both sides, so that the sternum and attached cartilages, deprived of support, were perceptibly sunken. Oserctzkowski16 reports two fatal cases of scurvy attended with spontaneous fracture of the ribs. There was extravasation into and beneath the periosteum, and subsequent destruction of the continuity of the bone. In one case the ribs on both sides were affected, so that the anterior wall of the thorax sunk in and embarrassed the respiration, which was chiefly maintained by the diaphragm. Inflammation of the lungs succeeded, and the patient died in agony.
15 Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences, p. 237, 1699, and Philosophical Transactions, vol. xv.
16 Wratsel, No. 51, 1881.
Recently-repaired fractures have been known to recur under the influence of scurvy from the destruction of the callus.17
17 Anson's Voyage Around the World, edited by Walter.
The articulations as well as the bones in very severe cases of scurvy present evidences of disease, consisting in periostitic effusions which involve the surrounding soft parts, producing impairment of motion, enlargement, and false ankylosis, and even destroying the normal anatomical relation of the osseous surfaces, so as to determine deformities. These changes are usually attended with severe pain, and most commonly occur in the ankle-, knee-, shoulder-, and hip-joints, and disappear tardily, requiring perhaps months for their recession, if indeed this takes place at all.
The symptoms manifested by the circulatory organs are prominent from an early period of the disease. The pulsations of the heart are slower, feebler, irregular, and often intermittent; its impulse is decreased or becomes quite imperceptible; and when the associated anæmia has progressed to a certain extent a systolic murmur may be audible. The arterial and venous channels are of diminished calibre; the pulse becomes soft, of less volume, and tardier; and a venous murmur may sometimes be heard in the cervical veins. The remarkable nutritive changes in the capillary walls in part account for the numerous hemorrhages which occur both by rhexis and diapedesis. The most frequent is epistaxis; the slightest blows, sneezing, or blowing the nose will often determine it, or it may occur spontaneously, and in severer cases with such profuseness as to threaten impending dissolution, requiring nothing less than timeous introduction of the tampon to rescue the victim. Hemorrhage from the lungs is of rare occurrence, and when it does happen is rather indicative of pre-existing pulmonary disease, such as phthisis, or of the approach of a complication, such as infarction or gangrene, than a constituent feature of scurvy. Hæmatemesis is less uncommon, but is by no means frequent; the blood ejected from the stomach is usually small in quantity, but in isolated examples the bleeding is profuse, producing great exhaustion and a sense of cardiac depression which preludes speedy death. Hemorrhage from the bowels is also an ill-omened feature, completely blanching the patient and presaging early exhaustion and death. Blood may also appear as a product of a complicating dysentery which determines abundant, offensive discharges that may run on for several weeks before the patient is finally exhausted. Hæmaturia sometimes occurs, especially in broken-down and cachectic subjects and in an advanced stage of scurvy. All of these forms of hemorrhagic effusion, now mentioned as localized in the mucous membranes, are to be deprecated as exercising a pernicious influence, seriously aggravating ordinary cases and fatally jeopardizing the issue of severe ones.
Effusive and inflammatory complications are also encountered in the serous structures, and usually in cases of great severity, though they occasionally present themselves when the more common localized phenomena of scurvy are not particularly prominent. These complications may be marked by a gradual accession, or they may rapidly arise and involve the patient, just before in apparent security, in the greatest peril. These incursions are almost always attended by febrile exacerbations and the usual grouping of clinical characters denotive of the same pathological conditions arising under ordinary circumstances. The local complications may either affect the pleura or pericardium, or both. In Karairajew's18 60 autopsic examinations pericardial effusions were noticed in 30, pleural in 30, pericardial and pleural in 6, peritoneal in 7, and arachnoidal in only 1. The exudations are sero-sanguinolent or fibrinous in character, and sometimes reach the inordinate quantity of four or five pounds, occasioning the patient the utmost distress and embarrassing the respiratory and circulatory functions. Although these augment in a high degree the risk to life, yet under prompt and appropriate treatment recovery may take place and the effusions vanish with surprising rapidity.
18 Himmelstiern, Beobachtungen über den Scorbut, S. 50, Berlin, 1843.
Hemorrhagic extravasation into the nervous centres is a very rare occurrence. It has not been as yet recorded as having occurred in the brain-substance itself, but has in several instances been noted between the meninges, producing headache, dizziness, vertigo, and sometimes somnolence, delirium, and coma. Opitz19 relates an interesting case in which convulsions suddenly occurred with unconsciousness, followed by hemiplegia of the left side of the body and the corresponding side of the face. After twenty-four hours consciousness returned and the paralysis disappeared. There were, however, headache and hyperæsthesia of the upper extremities present; twelve days later these also receded, and the patient finally recovered. The same author records paralysis as occurring in one case from extravasation into the spinal meninges. Samson observed an instance in which a fibrinous effusion formed upon the sciatic nerve, with consequent pain.
19 Prag. Vierteljahrschrift, S. 153, 1861.
In the circulatory system symptoms always of threatening and often of fatal import may arise: embolism may occur at various points, particularly in the lungs and spleen, occasioning hemorrhagic infarctions, which have undoubtedly been the occasion of the sudden deaths sometimes observed in scorbutic cases not apparently of a very dangerous form nor attended with an excessive degree of exhaustion.
The urinary system supplies no prominent symptoms; the statements as to the condition of the kidneys and the composition of the urine are contradictory. The urine not infrequently contains albumen, particularly in severe cases, but this is by no means indicative of corresponding changes in the renal structure: on the contrary, this may be found after death to be apparently free from disease.
The conclusions that would seem to be authorized by the statements of various authorities are that the quantity of urine passed is decreased, as well as that of the urea, while the amounts of the albuminoid and mineral matters are increased.
Physical examination will reveal the frequent occurrence of enlargement of the spleen, independent of malarial influences, and Krebel has encountered one case in which the liver was involved in inflammation.
Some derangement of the visual organs is present in many cases. Foltz, in the epidemic on the Raritan, reported four cases of nyctalopia and two of hemeralopia, and other affections of the eye, such as conjunctivitis, induration and irritation of the ciliary margins of the lids, with a copious and acrimonious discharge, these conditions being obviously due to the scorbutic diathesis. Medical Director J. Y. Taylor, U.S. Navy, in a private communication to me states that hemeralopia was a frequent premonitory symptom of scurvy that occurred in the U.S. sloop-of-war Decatur in 1854 during a laborious and tedious passage of three months through the Straits of Magellan. The men were overworked and much exposed to cold and wet, and part of the time were on diminished rations. The hemeralopia was at first erroneously attributed to the reflection from the snow and glaciers—a species of snow-blindness—but other phenomena speedily appeared in a majority of the causes: a subacute inflammation, with considerable pain and swelling of the small joints, especially those of the toes; sore and tender gums, although only a few progressed so far as to exhibit sponginess or bleeding; and debility, depression, anxiety, and insomnia. In a few cases the blindness was so complete as to render their subjects almost helpless after sunset. This was the most pronounced and remarkable symptom and the one most complained of. These incipient scorbutic symptoms were promptly arrested by the free use of wild celery (Apium graveolens), which was found growing abundantly in sheltered places. The short rations were also supplemented advantageously by mussels (Mytilus edulis) whenever they could be obtained. A few weeks later the crew appeared to be in ordinary health.
Hemorrhage may occur under the conjunctiva, raising it into small pouches; into the anterior chamber, causing iritis and adhesions; and, finally, into the choroid and vitreous humor, exciting a general inflammation of the entire organ.
Dulness of hearing and buzzing in the ears have also been signalized as occasional symptoms of scurvy.
The phenomena of fever are always absent during the course of uncomplicated scurvy, the temperature of the mouth sometimes falling as low as 92° F., and being always one or two degrees lower than normal. It is only in the later periods of the disease, when pathological processes most often supervene in the internal organs, that an elevated temperature and the other ordinary symptoms of fever are manifested. The lowered vital resistance of scorbutic subjects particularly disposes them to the incursions of fevers, especially those of malarial and typhoid types: hence in the low, marshy districts of Northern Europe and in sections of country afflicted by famine and overcrowded dwellings these complications are very common.
DIAGNOSIS.—Little or no difficulty will be encountered in discriminating scurvy from other diseases under the circumstances that usually surround its development and prevalence. These circumstances are altogether peculiar and characteristic, and involve the absence of succulent vegetable food as the prime factor, and exposure to cold, fatigue, mental despondency, or other depressing influences as accessory in its production. This combination of causes has been usually witnessed in all the outbreaks of scurvy in camps, besieged towns, on shipboard, particularly on ships in Arctic service.
Sporadic cases may escape immediate identification in the absence of some of these circumstances, but a close attention to the symptoms will surely lead to a correct conclusion. The scorbutic cachexia denoted by the sallow or earthy hue of the skin; the spongy gums; the discoloration of the surface; pains in the limbs and joints; the sense of weariness, and, later, the exhaustion, dyspnoea on the slightest exertion; the bloody and fibrinous effusions into the connective tissues and muscles about the joints, and into the pleuræ, pericardium, and peritoneum; the stiffness and contraction of the legs,—furnish a complexus of phenomena not met with in any other disease than scurvy. The discoloration of the skin in purpura, leucocythæmia, anæmia, chlorosis, and hæmatophilia, or other conditions involving hemorrhagic extravasation, are easily discriminated from those of scurvy when taken in connection with the other symptoms and the history of those diseases. In the beginning of scurvy the pains in the back and limbs might divert the attention to rheumatism, but an examination at this early stage will, in all likelihood, disclose the peculiar gingival and cutaneous lesions of scurvy.
The rapid improvement of scorbutic cases under a fruit and vegetable diet is also a noticeable feature not witnessed in any of the foregoing diseases.
PROGNOSIS.—The prognosis of scurvy is always favorable in the early stages, and even in the very worst recovery occurs under improved hygienic surroundings with remarkable promptness and certainty. It must not be overlooked, however, that sudden death may occur in seemingly light cases from failure of the heart's action or from embolism. There is a ready disposition to the recurrence of the disease under slight causes, and it may so impair the health as to lead to the development of other fatal maladies. The gravity of the case is to be gauged not so much by its seeming severity as by the accessibility of proper food-supplies, for without these the worst results may be expected. Where the case is embarrassed with complications of the respiratory and circulatory organs, involvement of the bones, and intercurrent diseases, the outlook becomes correspondingly grave.
Throughout the world, in recent times, greater areas of territory are devoted to agriculture and horticulture, and the products are distributed over wide extents of country by the increased facilities of communication by the highways and railroads, so that it would now be impossible for an epidemic of scurvy to devastate a region of country so provided as it did a century ago, or might do and has done in regions of country where tillage is neglected and communications are cut off by an absence of roads from more productive centres, as in Southern and Eastern Russia.
Hygienic improvements that have almost stamped out scurvy on shore have also done good service for mariners, and thousands of ships now cross the ocean on long cruises with perfect security from the disease. In the naval services of the world, as has been already shown, the disease is rarely encountered, and it is greatly diminished in the merchant marine, from which, it is hoped, in a few years, by a more rigid enforcement of existing laws for the protection of sailors, it may also entirely disappear. Even in exceptionally long and arduous cruises, as in the Arctic regions, the disease may be arrested, as was the case with the Jeannette, which was drifted about, locked up in ice, for sixteen months, yet only a single case of scurvy appeared.
It is of the first importance to enlist a healthy crew for long voyages, free from previous syphilitic, scorbutic, or other constitutional taint; then, by observing proper hygienic precautions, to maintain their health. One of the prime factors in securing this result is a suitable dietary. The improved methods of preserving food afford facilities for storing up adequate quantities of both kinds, animal and vegetable, to last the cruise. To economize these stores it will be well to start with a stock of live animals and recent vegetables, such as can be now had in almost any quantity in any considerable maritime city, and not until these are consumed are the canned and preserved supplies to be opened. All the ordinary meats, as beef, mutton, veal, and lamb; most vegetable products, as asparagus, beans, peas, potatoes, and a great variety of fruits, as peaches, plums, berries, etc., are obtainable at moderate expense, and should form an integral portion of the ration. Eggs can be easily preserved so as to keep for months by simply packing them in plaster or in salt, and they furnish a valuable and acceptable article of diet. Among articles of great nutritive value milk takes high rank, and it can be preserved sweet and pure indefinitely. Sauer-kraut is an antiscorbutic of considerable virtue, and should not be overlooked in laying in stores for a distant cruise. Cheese and oatmeal will be found useful additions to the ordinary ration.
It may be proper to state in the event of the occurrence of scurvy and the exhaustion of the fresh vegetable stores that various quickly-growing vegetables, such as mustard, radishes, turnips, and cresses, could be cultivated on shipboard if seeds are provided.
With such a varied dietary, comprehended in the above enumeration, it would be impossible for scurvy to invade the ship's company, especially when aided by other wholesome agencies, as cleanliness, well-ventilated and dry sleeping rooms, and clothing adapted to the weather. The antiscorbutic virtues of lime-juice were known long ago, being mentioned by Albertus in 1593, but it was not until many years later that it became an integral part of the English navy-ration. The law requires it to be carried on board all merchant vessels, and to be served out ten days after the crew has been living on salt rations. The juice keeps well if properly prepared and preserved from contact with air, especially when fortified with a small quantity of alcohol, the usual strength being about 10 per cent. It should be carried in vessels containing just enough to furnish a few days' rations to the whole crew, by which plan only a small amount need be exposed to the decomposing influence of the air. The juice can be reduced by evaporation to a very small bulk. This method was adopted in supplying the Arctic cruiser Rodgers.20 The juice was reduced to a paste, each pound of which represented one gallon of the solution of the ordinary strength. It has also been used in the form of lozenges and biscuit. It may be stated that great reliance has been placed upon malt, the acid wines, and cider as good antiscorbutics.
20 Report of the Surgeon-General of the Navy for 1880.
In connection with the food-supplies it is proper to mention those influences of a depressing character which have a tendency to favor the development of scurvy. The first is dampness in the sleeping apartments of the men. This should be prevented by ventilation, drying stoves, and taking care that no wet garments are permitted to remain in the apartments. They should be taken off immediately and hung outside to dry, and under no circumstances should the men be permitted to sleep in them, as is sometimes done.
Exposure to cold is unavoidable under certain conditions, and the men should then be protected by proper clothing adapted to the weather. Protracted fatigue is a third favoring circumstance, and the crew should be spared all the strain of hard work possible, especially in high latitudes. The apartments should also be kept well ventilated and scrupulously clean; and, lastly, depressing mental emotions, which are so apt to arise from exposure to danger and want, should be dispelled by cheering assurances, constant occupation, and whatever amusements can be had. These are the chief influences which are to be considered in adopting measures to prevent the occurrence of scurvy in communities, armies, on shipboard, or in persons confined in houses of detention.
The therapeusis of scurvy presents no intricate problems for solution. Its origin in dietetic errors is admitted by almost common consent, and it is surprising with what rapidity patients apparently beyond hope of recovery gather health and strength with a change in the character of the food. This is indispensable in the treatment, as drugs have little or no curative influence without it; and, therefore, the first object should be to supply the patient with lemon-juice or acescent fruits and fresh vegetables, as garlic, mustard, cresses, sorrel, nasturtium, taraxacum among the wild plants, and potatoes, onions, turnips, beets, radishes, etc. among the domesticated plants. And in conjunction with these fresh meats, in the form of soups if the solids cannot be masticated, may be used with advantage. Ordinarily, the dietetic treatment alone will suffice to re-establish the health. Should, however, convalescence be delayed, the vegetable bitters with the mineral acids and ferruginous tonics and quinia will furnish useful adjuvants. These are the standard remedies; others have been recommended at various times, as the juice of the maguey, a Mexican plant, potassium nitrate alone or combined with vinegar, tincture of cantharides, etc.
Attention will often be required to the various scorbutic complications, especially stomatitis, which is always a source of discomfort and suffering. One of the best local applications for this is pencilling the parts with a solution of nitrate of silver, which often affords marked relief. Mouth-washes, composed of solutions of chlorinated lime, potassium permanganate, carbolic acid, are beneficial by suppressing foul odors, exercising local stimulative action upon the gums, and promoting healing. Should ulceration attack the legs, as is often the case, the application of mild astringents and stimulative ointments will be all that is required. The parts should, of course, be kept clean and protected from irritation by protective dressings.
Hemorrhages from the nose, gums, stomach, bowels, or into the serous cavities should be treated upon the general principles applicable to their character, as the local use of cold, astringents, and the internal administration of hæmostatic agents—lead acetate, ergot, tincture of iron, and other remedies, vegetable and mineral, of this class. In desperate cases effusions into the chest, threatening death by interfering with the respiratory and circulatory organs, may render operation necessary as the last resort for their removal.
During the treatment it is important to obviate any sudden or severe strain upon the heart by premature movements or exercises, as this is fraught with danger.