SCURF SALVE—Grinsalbe. In France it is generally a mixture of 2 parts slaked lime, 5 parts soda crystals, and 25 parts fat. (Hager.)
SCUR′VY. Syn. Scorbutus, L. This disease commences with indolence, sallow looks, debility, and loss of spirits; the gums become sore and spongy, the teeth loose, and the breath
fetid; the legs swell, eruptions appear on different parts of the body, and, at length, the patient sinks under general emaciation, diarrhœa, and hæmorrhages.
The treatment of ordinary cases of this disease mainly consists in employing a diet of fresh animal and green vegetable food, with mild ale, beer, or lemonade, as beverages; scrupulously avoiding salted and dried meat. The fresh-squeezed juice of lemons is, perhaps, of all other substances, the most powerful remedy in this disease in its early stages, and is useful in all of them. Effervescing draughts formed with the bicarbonate of potassa (not soda) are also excellent.
In former years, before the nature of this malady had been intelligently investigated, and the proper preventive methods and remedial measures for combating it were unknown, scurvy was not only a very common but a very fatal disease in our own navy, as well as in the navies of other powers. Of 961 men who constituted Anson’s fleet sent out during our war with Spain in 1742, 626 died of scurvy in nine months; whilst Sir Gilbert Blane records that in the year 1780, out of a fleet composed of between 7000 and 8000 men, more than 1000, or one in seven, perished from the same cause. Sir Richard Hawkins, one of the naval celebrities of Elizabeth and James’ reign, affirmed that daring twenty years he had known 20,000 sailors fall victims to scurvy alone; and a Portuguese writer, quoted by Sir Charles Blane, speaking of the number of victims from scurvy, during a naval exploring expedition of his own country men, says “that if the dead who from this cause had been thrown overboard between the coast of Guinea and the Cape of Good Hope, and between that Cape and Mozambique, could have had tombstones placed for them, each on the spot where he sank, the whole way would have appeared one continued cemetery.”[149]
[149] Dr Guy.
The statistical report of the navy for 1871 offers a gratifying contrast to the above figures. From this document it appears that out of a total force of 4720 sailors, only four were affected with scurvy during that year. The much greater number of men attacked by the disease on board merchant ships appears to be due to the inferior or worthless character of the lime or lemon juice purchased by them.
Writing on the hygienic condition of the merchant marine in 1867, Mr Harry Leach says:—
“We are prepared to maintain, from the following table (and other statistics from which these have been taken), that the want of good lime or lemon juice was distinctly the cause of scurvy in the vessels below mentioned.
| Name of Ship. | No. of Hands (all told). | Cases of Scurvy. | Result of examination of Lime juice. |
| Hermione | 17 | 5 | Sulphuric acid. |
| Merrie England | 29 | 10 | Stinking. |
| Stirling Castle | 32 | 6 | Very weak. |
| Hoang-Ho | 21 | 5 | Acetic acid. |
| Blanche Moore | 35 | 8 | Musty and nauseous. |
| St Andrew’s Castle | 19 | 7 | Citric acid. |
| Tamerlane | 21 | 4 | Nauseous. |
| Marlborough | 23 | 8 | Very weak. |
| Galloway | 29 | 6 | Short allowance. |
| Tamar | 17 | 2 | Very weak. |
| French Empire | 27 | 7 or 8 | Citric acid. |
| Eaglet | 14 | 3 | Thick and nasty. |
| Geelong | 14 | 9 | Taken irregularly. |
| Thorndean | 35 | 2 | Spoiled (short supply of provisions). |