On the recent difference of opinion as to the cause of scurvy.

  • Anderson, Andrew, active 1847.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the recent difference of opinion as to the cause of scurvy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    And how do potatoes nourish men so well (teste Hibernia) that no other article of food will singly keep them in such health ? Mr Crum had shown (Philosophical Society of Glasgow) that four pounds of potatoes contain about as much albuminous matter as an egg:—the root then affords starch to heat, and nitrogen to nourish ; but peas and beans, which do as much, will not serve as man’s sole food. They are deficient in the third, the anti-scorbutic element, which Baly has shown to be possessed by the potatoe ; hence its sur- passing value,—it is milk for men. May we not in some such way as this reconcile Dr Christison’s. observations with common notions ? The analyses which I am about to quote prove that there is no necessary lack of fibrin in scorbutic blood; nay, that even in severe cases that element may be unnaturally plentiful, and the corpuscles, moreover, not much diminished. The darkness of the colour of the clot, and its occasional jelly-like con- sistency, indicate no doubt a depraved condition of the blood : but the startling rapidity of the cure by lemon-juice appears to show that the error is in its vital structure, rather than in its chemical composition; and is repaired by putting into their right places, as it were, nutritive molecules already present in the fluid, rather than by the more tedious process of absorbing and adopting new materials. When scurvy, however, does break out, it soon brings on anaemia; and then, of course, the corpuscles and the albumen are both pro- gressively reduced in quantity, while the fibrin and the salts remain unchanged. This will be seen in the last analysis which I shall quote, which yet must not lead us to confound the essential with the accidental. But Dr Curran, too, has a chemical theory of scurvy:— u Dr Christison, by overlooking the salts contained in food, has committed an error which totally destroys all the value of his reasonings. That vulgar experience, which leads the bird-fancier to supply his birds with lime, should not be lost upon those who have to direct the nutrition of the masses of the human species. Dr Aldridge is, however, the only chemist who has made his knowledge practically available on this subject; and from his excellent little work, I extract the following short, intelligible, general directions.” (Loc. cit., pp. 113-14.) Dr Aldridge’s theory, it would appear, is, that it is the want of lime and saline matter in the food which causes scurvy. This were remarkable, if true,—because if so, how should pure citric acid cure the malady; and why, in the celebrated historical case of the conti- nental army, did dry herbs, containing of course all then’ salts, fail to alleviate the scurvy like the fresh plants. But we need not discuss this point; for Dr Aldridge’s theory is not more correct than new. It is simply a rechaujfee of that which, broached by Dr Stevens fifteen years ago, was refuted by Dr Kerr in the Cyclopaedia of Prac- tical Medicine (iii. 694). But as it was possible that Dr Aldridge might have analysed scorbutic blood before constructing his little