Animals susceptible. In past times man has suffered extensively in connection with unwholesome food and environment, on long sea voyages, on uninhabited islands, in military campaigns, in besieged cities, in famines, when restricted to one article of food, etc. Among the lower animals, pigs especially suffer, when kept in close, foul quarters and fed a monotonous and insufficient ration. Dogs suffer under similar conditions, and probably other animals would if equally badly used.
Causes. Formerly it was attributed to an exclusive diet of salt meat and bread; to excess of sodium, and deficiency of potassium salts; to the absence of fresh vegetables; to tainted food, etc. A broader generalization shows the Eskimo living on a pure meat diet, the Mongolian on rice alone, the Congoese on plantains, and without scurvy. Yet it cannot be denied that these various conditions undermine the general health, and prepare the system for those faulty states of nutrition which are seen in scurvy. In pigs the food and environment are usually chiefly at fault, the subjects have been kept closely confined in foul buildings, in a hot, moist atmosphere, and with an uniform diet of maize or other unvarying and insufficient ration. It does not appear when there is a free access to a spacious yard or open field, and when the monotonous diet can be varied by a variety of slugs and other invertebrates. Röll attaches great importance to a putrid condition of the aliments (putrescent swill). Benion has found it mainly in obese swine, the forced feeding and intestinal fermentations manifestly operating as factors. Corrupt drinking water has proved a manifest factor among men living in camps, and pigs above all other animals are subjected to this cause. Benion says it occurs in the advanced stages of measles (cysticercus cellulosa).
It is evident that unwholesome conditions of life such as the above, contribute strongly to the affection, yet probably no one of these is by itself an effective factor. Its rapid extension among men and animals, that are huddled together in close, filthy quarters suggests an epizootic or infective element, and Cornevin, Hess and others attribute the disease in pigs to the germ of erysipelas. Stengel has produced purpuric disease in animals by inoculation of the extravasated blood from human scurvy patients. Müller and Babes found a slender bacillus and streptococci in the tissues of scorbutic gums. The bacillus was present in the mouth of non-scurvy persons. Boruträger found cocci in the spleen. Berthensen alleges that after complete recovery the disease does not attack the same person a second time, which, if confirmed, will go far to establish a bacteridian origin. There is considerable presumption of the existence of a microbian cause, the efficiency of which is dependent on the unhygienic conditions above stated, while these unwholesome conditions are equally nonpathogenic in the absence of the microbe.
Lesions. The blood is black and incoagulable or clots loosely, rigor mortis is slight, changes may be found in the number and character of the white and red blood globules, but are not constant, there is usually an excess of sodium salts and deficiency of potassium ones, and there is marked petechiation of the skin, mucosæ and serosæ. The bone marrow may be abnormally red and the bones fractured at the epiphyses, or carious. The addition of the gum lesions makes the case characteristic. The gums are softened, swollen, red and uneven, with hæmorrhagic discoloration, erosions, necrotic areas and ulcers.
Symptoms. Anorexia or fastidious appetite, prostration, debility and sluggish indifferent movements, are followed by the local lesions on the skin and gums. On the skin appear petechiæ, and extravasations, which often implicate the bristles, so that they may be shed or pulled out with ease, the bulbs appearing dark and bloodstained (bristle rot). These may be followed by necrotic sloughs, and deep ulcers that are slow to heal. The gums are red and swollen, with hæmorrhagic spots, and bleed on the slightest touch. Erosions, sores and ulcers are not uncommon, the tongue is dry and furred, and the mouth exhales a fœtid odor. The teeth may become loose in their sockets. Swelling of the joints, from hæmorrhage or effusion, may be noticed, and lameness or stiffness from muscular or intermuscular extravasation. Blood effusions into the anterior or posterior chamber of the eye have been noticed and paralytic or comatose symptoms from similar effusions on the brain. In the absence of improvement the patient becomes more and more debilitated and exhausted, and death may be preceded by profuse exhausting diarrhœa.
Prognosis is unfavorable in advanced cases, and when the faulty regimen cannot be corrected.
Treatment. The first consideration is to correct the unwholesome conditions of life, purify the building and its surroundings, and allow a free range on a pasture. Subject each patient to a thorough soapy wash, and if possible allow clean running water in which a bath may be taken at will. Access to green food and invertebrates (slugs, larvæ, etc.) is important, or a varied diet of grain, middlings, bran, roots, fruits, tubers, cabbage, silage, etc., must be furnished. Iron and bitters (mix vomica, gentian,) are useful and sometimes small doses of arsenite of soda solution, or cream of tartar are useful. Acorns or horsechestnuts are recommended. For the mouth a wash of potassium chlorate, soda biborate, or potassium permanganate may be resorted to. Friedberger and Fröhner advise for the dog extract of meat in wine.
In the case of fat pigs it is more profitable to butcher at once, as soon as early symptoms appear.
In pigs or puppies brought up by hand, as in babies, the true course, is to discard milk substitutes and give sweet new milk, preferably of the genus to which the patient belongs. The important elements of cleanliness and outdoor life must not be forgotten.