50. Dr. LIND states that scurvy most com

on this disease were often approaches only to ing the effects produced by food such as that the truth, but these approaches were some- already mentioned. MARTIN LISTER, and many times so near as to lead to judicious means of of preceding and contemporary writers, and subprevention and cure, although certain subordin-sequently COCKBURN, PITCAIRN, BOERHAAVE, and ate agencies were often overlooked. ECTHIUS, others down to the appearance of BACHSTROM'S one of the earliest writers on scurvy, assigns work, in 1734, agree in ascribing scurvy to the as causes, "gross, unwholesome food of salt, use of unwholesome food and water, or to those dried, or semi-putrid flesh and fish, pork, spoiled causes chiefly which had been mentioned by bread, stinking water," &c. RONSSEUS ascribed their predecessors. But the last-named author the frequency of scurvy in Holland to the diet was the first to demonstrate that, however and air, to eating quantities of water-fowl, but much the food and water used were concerned chiefly to living on flesh first salted, then smoked in occasioning scurvy, abstinence from recent vegand dried, and to the season and weather. etables was the chief cause of the malady, and the WIERUS, who probably viewed cases of pso- use of these the chief prevention and cure. Notriasis as modifications of scurvy, and in this withstanding this very decided opinion, and the agreed with many who both preceded and fol- very conclusive evidence BACHSTROM furnished lowed him, more justly remarked the not infre- of its truth, the disease has been imputed by quent connexion of scurvy with ague and ma-writers, down almost to the present day, rather lignant forms of fever; and, with sufficient rea- to the prolonged use of cured provisions, than son, ascribes this distemper "to unwholesome to the want of fresh vegetables and fruit. But air, and chiefly to such bad or corrupt food as it is unnecessary to pursue this part of the subwas used in northern countries, and by their jeet any farther. shipping, viz., stinking pork, smoked rancid bacon, mouldy bread, thick, feculent ale, bad wa-monly occurred on land in persons who subsistter, melancholy and grief of mind, preceding ed chiefly on dried, or smoked, or salted flesh fevers, the stoppage of usual evacuations," &c. or fish, and the unfermented farines; or upon DODONEUS imputed the scurvy in Brabant, in bread made of peas, or a composition of peas 1556, to the use of corrupted rye during a sea- and oatmeal. KRAMER states that, in his time, son of scarcity. ROSTOCK, in a treatise publish- this distemper appeared most frequently among ed in 1589, remarks, that impure water and bad those who lived altogether on boiled pulses, air aid unwholesome food in producing scurvy, without any green vegetables or summer fruits. and states that the disease is endemic in sev The occurrence of the disease among the Ruseral northern countries, and that scorbutic moth-sian troops, whose chief food was rye bread ers often there bear scorbutic children, and oft- and meal, has been already noticed. Scurvy en miscarry, or bring forth dead fœtuses. BRUN- appeared among the inmates of a lunatic asyNER insists upon the influence of damp, marshylum in India, whose food consisted chiefly of localities, and other sources of malaria, in producing scurvy, and ascribes more to the nature of the bread used by the inhabitants of those localities than previous writers. HORSTIUS likewise insists upon the influence of malaria, and the use of new ale, without hops or any other bitter, in causing scurvy in various places in the north of Germany. VANDER MYE notices, more particularly than any previous writer, the influence of the emotions and passions of the mind in causing and in preventing scurvy, and adduces the effects of occurrences which took place during the siege of Breda in support of his views. In this siege he attributed the disease chiefly to the general use of old, spoiled, or mus. ty rye, and to humidity; but other causes, both physical and moral, were also in operation. He adds, that "the distemper proved most fatal to the English soldiers, as they very early began to feed on dog's flesh, were in want of their beloved tobacco, and lay in the most wet or damp barracks. It was much less frequent among the Walloons and Flemings, they being more careful and delicate in their diet, and having much wholesomer quarters. Among the French it was more rarely met with, owing to their being stationed in the driest part of the town, and to their more sprightly dispositions."

49. J. HARTMANN takes notice of the influence of mercury, and of mercurial courses, in predisposing to scurvy. In 1645, the medical faculty of Copenhagen published a consultation on the causes, prevention, and cure of the distemper, for the benefit of the poor of the country; and in this meritorious production, the influence of cold, humidity, malaria, and of unwholesome water and beverages, is insisted upon, as aidIII. 54

rice and split peas; and Mr. MACOLMSON mentions the occurrence of the distemper in the same country among prisoners kept on bread and water. That various kinds of bread, especially when long kept, will occasion scurvy, or at least not prevent it, I believe, when they are not accompanied with succulent vegetables or fruits. But something is also owing to insufficiency, as well as sameness of diet, to living in a state of confinement, to breathing the air of the same place or habitation, and to the duration of this state of confinement; for it has always been remarked that, when this latter cause has been concerned in producing the disease, the first cases have been those longest confined. It may also be noticed that the influence of farinaceous food in occasioning scurvy is great in proportion to the length of time the articles have been kept previously, or subsequent to their usual modes of preparation, and to their healthy, or ripe, or untainted condition when prepared. And it should be recollected that flour, if sound and fresh, is more likely to prove beneficial when baked or otherwise prepared, shortly before it is used, than when it has been made into bread or biscuits a long time previously.

51. The prevalence of scurvy during 1847 and 1848, in Ireland, Scotland, and some parts of England, was very generally ascribed to the failure of the potato crop. But in some places in Scotland, Dr. CHRISTISON imputed the disease to the privation of milk-an opinion which has been negatived by numerous observations of the prevalence of scurvy where the supply of milk was abundant.*

[In the Perth general prison where scurvy was very

tion, and even the existence of a putrid ferment in the blood to be inferred. More recent writers considered that a simple dyscrasis of the blood only existed; others, not content with the simplicity of this view, thought it necessary to impart to it some special property or chemi

was acid; and some were positive as to the dyscrasy being alkaline. Lastly, we find the distemper referred to the existence of a discrasis produced by the evolution of an acid ferment in the blood; the chief reason for the existence of this ferment being that an alkaline ferment could not exist; but the particular acid was not shown.

53. The chemical pathologists of the present day have not thrown much more light upon this part of the subject than their predecessors, each of whom considered his opinion as good as the former believed their own to have been. Dr. CHRISTISON Supposes that scurvy arises from the want of vegetable albumen or animal casein in the food; and Dr. GARROD believes that the malady is caused by the absence of potash, and that potatoes and other antiscorbutics owe their virtues to the potash they contain. Dr. ALDRIDGE contends for the influence which should be ascribed to a deficiency of phospho

52. VI. THE NATURE OF SCURVY may be inferred with tolerable accuracy, especially as respects every practical purpose, from what has been adduced. But it is obvious that the numerous occurrences of the distemper, both on land and at sea, as described at least by the majority of the writers referred to in the Biblical quality, and contended that the dyscrasy ography, were associated with the appearance of one or more of those maladies, of which I have pointed out the relations with scurvy (§ 27, et seq.); and that, with many cases of scurvy, both simple and complicated, others of a different nature, as psoriasis, and various chronic eruptions, also appeared. To these circumstances to the extended signification thus imparted to the name, as well as to the complications it actually manifested-are to be ascribed the diversity of description, and the numerous and complicated subdivisions of the malady, contained in works upon it during the 17th and 18th centuries. Opinions as to the nature or proximate cause of scurvy were no less diversified, and even numerous. Without attempting to adduce these opinions in full, or to connect them with their authors, it may be briefly remarked, that they generally agreed with the pathological doctrines of the day in which they respectively appeared, and were assigned by their authors, without any satisfactory proofs-rus, sulphur, lime, and the alkalies, in occasionwere mere suppositions, or, at best, inferences ing scurvy. That something may be owing-a from loosely-observed phenomena. While some part merely-to the causes contended for by Dr. writers imputed scurvy to an acid state of the ALDRIDGE, is not improbable. But it is unneblood, others ascribed it to an alkaline condi- cessary to pursue this subject any farther than tion of this fluid, and some even, to make more very briefly to state that one of the most evisure of the fact, considered that acidity in cer- dent changes from the healthy condition is seattain cases, and alkalinity in others, were its act- ed in the blood; but that this change is probaual causes, the predominance of either condi- bly not the earliest in the procession of morbid tion giving rise to the different forms of the phenomena, as it most certainly is not the only malady. These views not proving satisfacto- or the most advanced. That the change of the ry, especially to those who had opinions of their blood is manifested by the sensible or physical own to propose, the existence of a predomi-properties, as well as by the chemical constitunant saline condition of the blood was supposed and accredited by many. But the particular salt was never shown, some considering it to be an acrid salt, others a rancid salt, and so on. Then came a viscid state of the blood to be asserted, then a vitiated as well as a viscid condi

prevalent, Dr. CHRISTISON states that the prisoners were constantly employed; that they were not exposed to damp; that the ventilation of the cells was tolerably good; that the victuals of all kinds were excellent in quality; that there were no salt provisions; that fresh succulent vegetables, though not abundant, were not wanting; that milk has recently been withdrawn, and treacle substituted in its place. Hence he concludes that the sole cause of the disease was the absence of milk; for he states that the restoration of the milk arrested the spread of the disease. But meat was also given three times a week, which no doubt contributed to check the disease. That the absence of milk alone will not cause scurvy, is demonstrated in all our penitentiaries, alms-houses, jails, &c., in which milk is rarely, if ever, used, and yet the disease is almost unknown. The want of potatoes, meat, and milk in the Perth prison, with imperfect ventilation, was amply suf ficient to produce the disease. So we have observed the disease, in former years, to prevail pretty generally among the New York pauper children, confined in crowded apartments at the Long Island Farms, and kept on too innutritious food, scanty in quantity, and miserable in qual ity, which disappeared on supplying them with meat, and a more generous diet. Any diet whatever, which will de teriorate the blood, lessening the globuline and its plastic qualities, will produce scurvy; and where persons subjected to such diet breathe an atmosphere deficient in oxygen, the blood becomes still more rapidly vitiated, and the disease assumes a more severe and malignant form. The Indians of our western prairies live for weeks on the flesh of the buffalo, without fresh vegetables, and yet we never hear of their being attacked with scurvy.]

tion of this fluid, will readily be admitted; and that, in consequence of this change, the several solids of the body are more or less affected, will also be conceded; but I contend that these are not the only alterations; for the vital qualities of the blood itself are more or less áltered, or rather impaired-those vital qualities which the blood derives from the organic nervous system, through the medium chiefly of the vessels in which it circulates. That the organic nervous system is early affected, either primarily, o through the medium of the blood, or in both modes, is shown, not merely by the functions, but also by the vital cohesion and organization, Of the viscera and tissues which this system supplies and vitally actuates. But it is immaterial whether this system or the blood be the part primarily affected; for there can be no doubt that morbid states of the chyle, occasioned either by the nature and quality of the allments, or by the defect of certain elements consequent upon the want of the requisite vegetable productions, or by both causes conjoined, will affect the assimilating functions, both by impairing organic nervous power and by altering the constitution of the blood, the slow and gradual progress of these changes giving rise to all the structural as well as functional alterations characterizing the advanced stages of the malady.

54. VII. THE PREVENTION OF SCURVY.-A. The efficacy of limes, lemons, shaddocks, oranges,

and pomegranates, in preventing scurvy, was are edible possess more or less of these beneknown to several of the earlier writers on the ficial properties The writers of the 16th cendisease, one of whom is quoted by LIND, intury have generally noticed the popular use of proof of the use thus made of these fruits by scurvy-grass, brook-lime, water-cresses, &c., for the Dutch seamen. ROUSSEUS, ALBERTUS, and the prevention and cure of this distemper. All other writers in the 16th century, make partic-succulent vegetables and plants comprised in ular mention of lemons and oranges for the pre- the order Crucifera are more or less efficavention and cure of scurvy. Although partic- cious, especially the radish, horseradish, turnip, ular and convincing proofs of the efficacy of carrot, cabbage, &c.; and even such of these as these were thus early furnished, not only by are commonly only used when boiled are most the Dutch, but also by some of our own early efficacious when taken raw and fresh from the navigators, and subsequently by Admiral WA- ground. Dr. LIND very justly insists upon this GER, and others, insufficient attention was paid circumstance, and remarks that herbs in form to the use of these fruits until the appearance of salads are more efficacious than when boiled; of Dr. LIND's celebrated work on scurvy, at the and that their antiscorbutic properties are demiddle of the last century. Notwithstanding | stroyed by drying, as shown by KRAMER, and the evidence so conclusively adduced by this by the results observed from the antiscorbutic able writer, these means of preventing scurvy herbs sent from Vienna to the army in Hunwere nevertheless more or less neglected, or gary. Onions, garlic, leeks, and potatoes are all were left to the caprice or choice of command- very decidedly antiscorbutic, and as these may ers and others, until the efforts of BLANE, BLAIR, be preserved for some time, they are most benand TROTTER, towards the end of that century, eficial for the provisioning of ships or armies. succeeded in procuring the adoption of lime- The very general use of potatoes in modern juice for the naval service. The lemon and times partly accounts for the remarkably less lime juice now supplied to the navy is preserv- prevalence of scurvy at the present day than ed by the addition of one part of strong brandy formerly. to ten of the juice. But when the fruit can be procured, it is generally preferred, and is used, especially when it is actually required, with much pleasure and relish.

57. Most of the articles which are antiscorbutic may be preserved by pickling, especially by the pyroligneous acid or vinegar, and retain in a great degree their virtues. The immunity of Dutch vessels from scurvy has been ascribed by Dr. KERR and others to the use of sour kroute; and the health of the crew of the Centurion, during Captain Cook's voyage, was considered to have been owing to a liberal supply of this antiscorbutic.* The quantity usually allowed of this substance was two pounds' weight to each man per week, besides a pound and a half, or two pounds, with every gallon of peas, for making soup.

55. B. Other fruits, particularly those of an acid nature, and even the sweet fruits before they are ripe, are more or less efficacious in the prevention and cure of scurvy. Dr. TROTTER states that, having remarked that scorbutic slaves threw away ripe guavas, while they used the green fruit, he resolved to try the effects of such. He selected nine negroes, equally affected with scurvy. To three of those he gave limes, to three green guavas, and to three ripe guavas. They were served by himself; and, 58. There is no northern country where scurat the end of a week, those who were restricted vy is generally endemic during winter, spring, to the ripe fruit were nearly as before the ex- and the early part of summer, that does not periment, while the others were almost well. furnish a supply of antiscorbuties, if duly recM. FODÉRÉ states that the good effects of un-ognized and preserved for these seasons. In ripe grapes were very apparent in the scorbutic Norway, Greenland, Iceland, and Lapland, they cases of the French army of the Alps, in 1795. employ scurvy-grass, sorrel, and various other Sir J. PRINGLE recommended apples as a pre-warm and acid herbs. Sir E. PARRY, in his first ventive in 1776; and Dr. TROTTER remarks that, "when Lord BRIDPORT's fleet arrived at Spithead, in September, 1795, almost every man in the fleet was more or less affected with scurvy. Large supplies of vegetables were provided; and lemon-juice being scarce, in consequence of the previous great consumption, fifty baskets of unripe apples were procured for the use of the fleet. The Royal Sovereign, in particular, derived great benefit from them;" and the cure of the disease was every where most speedy. Tamarinds, and most of the acidulous fruits of 59. C. There is, perhaps, not any vegetable warm and hot climates, are more or less anti-production more remarkably antiscorbutic than scorbutic. When scurvy was prevalent among the tribe of firs, especially the spruce-fir and the troops at Rangoon, during the Burmese war of 1824, the Phyllanthus emblica, or anola, which * Dr. KERR, in his able treatise on scurvy, remarks, has a rich, acid taste, was employed as an anti-pared by slicing the soundest and most solid cabbages in that "Sour kroute or croute (sauer-kraut, Germ.) is pre

scorbutic with much benefit.

56. When BACHSTROM asserted, in 1734, that scurvy was the result of a more or less protracted privation of fresh vegetables and fruits, he stated at the same time both its prevention and its cure; and, although certain vegetables and fruits accomplished these purposes more quickly and fully than others, all those which

polar expedition, experienced the advantage of sorrel in the cases which occurred among his crews. He states that sorrel was preferred by the Esquimaux to scurvy-grass. He adopted, also, the advice of BACHSTROM and LIND, and raised small quantities of mustard and cress in his cabin, in small, shallow boxes, filled with mould, and placed along the stove-pipe; and as much of these were thus produced, although etiolated from want of light, as to prove beneficial to the scorbutic cases.

the way cucumbers are used in this country. In this state they are put into a barrel in layers, hand high, and over this manner it is rammed down, stratum supra stratum, each is strewed a handful of salt and caraway seeds: in till the barrel is full, when a cover is put over it, and it is pressed down with a heavy weight. After standing for some time in this state, it begins to ferment; and it is not until the fermentation has entirely subsided that the head is fitted to it, and the barrel is finally shut up and prepar ed for use."-Cyclop. of Pract. Med., vol. iii., p. 691.

of his crew, is considered by LIND to have been the leaves and tops of the American spruce; and it, as well as the other pines and firs, evidently owed much of its virtues to the terebinthinate principles it contained.

common fir, and mountain pine. MOELLENBROEK | TIER attributed the remarkably quick recovery states, that when the Swedish army, at war with the Muscovites, were attacked with scurvy, Dr. ERBENIUS prescribed a decoction of fir-tops, by which the most deplorable cases were cured, and the rest of the troops protected from the distemper. Two squadrons of ships fitted out by Russia in 1736, were obliged to winter in Siberia, and their crews became affected with scurvy. After attempts to discover a remedy, the pines which grew plentifully on the adjoining mountains were hit upon; and by these all the men recovered in a few days.-(GMELIN, Flor. Siber., p. 181.) Dr. LIND remarks, that pines and firs, as well as the shrub called the black spruce, have all analogous medicinal virtues, and great efficacy in the prevention and cure of this disease. "A simple decoction of the tops, cones, leaves, or even green bark and wood of these trees, is an excellent antiscorbutic; but it becomes much more so when fermented, as in making spruce-beer, where the molasses contributes, by its diaphoretic quality, to make it a more suitable medicine. By carrying a few bags of spruce to sea, this wholesome drink may be prepared at any time. But when it cannot be had, the common fir-tops should be first boiled in water, and the decoction afterward fermented with molasses, in the common method of making spruce-beer, to which a small quantity of wormwood and horseradish root (which it is easy to preserve fresh at sea) may be added."

61. D. Molasses has been considered by LIND and others as antiscorbutic; and Sir G. BLANE states, that the ship in which it was first tried was the only one in the squadron that was free from scurvy, which prevailed so much in the other ships, that, on their return to Portsmouth in August, 1780, 2400 men were sent to the hospital with this disease. Subsequently, molasses was served with rice to the men who were scorbutic, or threatened with scurvy, in Lord Howe's fleet; and the benefit derived from it was so great that it was made for some time a regular article in the victualling of ships. Nevertheless, the malady was not entirely prevented; and in some vessels well supplied with it, scurvy prevailed to a great extent. Dr. BUDD believes that the antiscorbutic properties of sugar-cane are greater than those of molasses, and that they are much impaired by the process employed in the manufacture of sugar. I consider this opinion to be correct, from what I have observed in warm climates.

62. An anonymous work on scurvy, published in 1767, recommended the use of wort, or an infusion of malt, as an antiscorbutic; and this substance was afterward favourably noticed by Dr. BADENOCH. Captain Cook employed it in 60. Tar-water was formerly strongly recom- the Centurion, and spoke highly of its efficacy. mended as an antiscorbutic; but the extrava- He took with him a large supply of malt, with gant praises bestowed upon it at the commence- which to make wort; of this from one to three ment of the last century greatly injured its just pints were given daily to each man. Sir G. reputation. Dr. LIND still continued to uphold BLANE states that the fleet in the West Indies it; and many years ago, I had occasion to have was supplied with the essence of malt; that it recourse to it as a preventive, when placed in proved of service, but that its antiscorbutic propcircumstances most likely to occasion this dis-erties were inconsiderable. The process of extemper, and when no other means could be obtained.* There are many reasons to believe that all the terebinthinates are antiscorbutic; and that, when the disease is attended by hæmorrhage, there is no substance so efficacious as the spirit of turpentine, when taken in small and repeated doses; in arresting the hæmorrhage, in restoring the tone of the extreme vessels, and removing the contractions of the joints. With this impression, I recommended Sir E. PARRY to have a supply of this medicine in his last polar expedition; and he adopted the recommendation. The anuda-tree, to which CAR

The

tracting the essence very probably impaired the properties possessed by the infusion.

63. E. Various fermented liquors have been used as antiscorbutics, some of them from times immemorial, in northern countries. In Norway, in the Feröe and Shetland Isles, the inhabitants have, from the earliest ages, used, as their common beverages or drink, two kinds of fermented liquors; the one consisting of the fermented serum of butter-milk, or of fermented buttermilk, the caseous matter being removed as the fermentation proceeds; the other being an infusion of the bran or husks of oats and barley, that is fermented after the chief part of the farinaceous deposit from the infusion is removed. This deposit takes place from the infusion after this latter is poured off, or otherwise separated from the bran or husks. The infusion is then allowed to ferment, and the farinaceous deposit is removed, and used as an article of diet. These are very agreeable beverages, especially during the advanced stages of their fermentation, and constitute the common drink of the inhabitants. They are the chief means of averting scurvy in these parts, where fresh vegetables are either scarce, or not to be obtained, during a great part of the year, and where fruits are almost altogether wanting.

*The author of this work, in the winter of 1817 and 1818, was a passenger to England in a vessel which was detained by bad weather at sea during thirteen weeks and four days, and which was provisioned and watered for seven or eight weeks only. He fortunately had laid in a small stock of articles for his own use; but, nevertheless, it was found necessary, after some time, to place every one on an abridged allowance of food and water. meat provisions were altogether long salted, and were chiefly pork; the biscuit was coarse and mouldy. The water ultimately, also, was short in quantity, turbid, bluish, and most offensive. There fortunately was a very mod erate supply of potatoes. During thirteen weeks no land had been seen, nor any other vessel communicated with. In this predicament-which, however, was not the only or the most dangerous one-the author caused a small quantity of tar to be put into the water before it was used for drinking, and a little spirit was added. To these means, aided by a very moderate supply of potatoes, he attributed 64. In all the continental countries borderthe preservation of the crew from scurvy and scorbuticing on the Baltic, and Northern and German dysentery, every person arriving in the Downs in good Oceans, spruce-beer is the most generally and health, notwithstanding the unwholesome supply of food and water, and the unfavourable season. most efficaciously used as a preventive of scur

vy; vessels from Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Riga, Dantzic, &c., being generally provided either with it or with the essence of spruce, for their antiscorbutic properties. Spruce-beer is beneficial, not only for the prevention and cure of scurvy, but also in the treatment of most fevers of a low type, and of several cachectic diseases; in all of which I have, since the commencement of my practice, frequently prescribed it. As shown above (§ 59), it may be readily prepared from the materials which are easily procured, and as easily carried about. Cider and perry are among the most decided antiscorbutic beverages in use in this country, and were long ago shown to be very serviceable by Sir J. PRINGLE and Dr. LIND. Small-beer, in a state of brisk fermentation, is also antiscorbutic, especially when a sufficient quantity of hops, or of a vegetable bitter, has been added. Sir G. BLANE and others have made a favourable mention of malt liquors, and I have seen them used with advantage, especially porter, when bottled and well preserved.

to show it to be greatly superior to most other remedies in this disease. The leaves are cut off close to the root, placed in hot ashes until thoroughly cooked, when they are removed, and the juice expressed from them. The expressed juice is then strained, and given in doses of from 3ij. to giij., three times a day. It is not disagreeable to take, and sits well on the stomach. After the leaves have been cooked, the cortical portion near the root may be removed, and the white internal portion may be eaten. It appears to be a wholesome and nutritious food.-(New York Jour. Med., Sept., 1851.)

The wild pepper-grass (Lepidium Virginicum) was found very useful in the treatment of scurvy in Florida during the Seminole war. The wild onion (Allium angulosum), a small bulbous plant growing on the Upper Missouri and the Western prairies, has also proved very beneficial in arresting the disease.]

67. F. The mineral acids have been found but little influential in the prevention and cure of scurvy. Dr. LIND took twelve patients on board of the Salisbury at sea; their cases were quite similar. They lay in one place, and the diet was the same for all of them. Two of them were ordered a quart of cider daily; two others took twenty-five drops of elixir of vitriol three times a day; two had two spoonfuls of vinegar thrice a day, and their food well acidulated with it; two were put on a course of seawater, about half a pint having been given every day; two had each two oranges and one lemon daily; and two had the size of a nutmeg, three times a day, of an electuary made of garlic, mustard-seed, rad. raphan., balsam of Peru, and myrrh; using barley-water, acidulated with tamarinds, for drink. The oranges and lemons were the most speedily beneficial; next to those the cider: those who took the other medicines were, at the end of a fortnight, much in the same state as those who had taken only lenitive electuary and cream of tartar as an aperient.

65. The several kinds of wine are more or less antiscorbutic; and they are rendered still more so by the addition of vegetable bitters and aromatics, more particularly absinthium, calumba, cascarilla, ginger, orange and lemon peel, &c. It has been observed that scurvy was rare in French ships of war in which the wines of their country were served out to the crews. Sir G. BLANE, Dr. LIND, and Dr. BRYSON, agree in reprobating the use of spirituous liquors. There can be no doubt of the injurious tendency of these when taken in excess, or habitually, or undiluted; but used in small quantity, largely diluted, and added to the more common antiscorbutic beverages, or to bitter vegetable infusions, they are decidedly beneficial, both in the prevention and cure of the distemper. There are various contingencies which occur to voyagers. requiring a cautious and moderate recourse to one or other of these liquors; and, in circumstances threatening the outbreak of scurvy, the addition of a small quantity of either 68. G. There are numerous medicines besides of them to the means of prevention in common those already mentioned which are more or less use has a very beneficial influence upon the useful in preventing as well as in curing scurspirits and constitution of those who thus ab- vy. Most of the more succulent and acidulous stemiously use them, and promotes the good ef- vegetables, plants, and fruits, especially when fects of the more efficacious antiscorbutics, es- fresh, or preserved by pyroligneous vinegar, are pecially during exposures to cold and humidity. beneficial; but many of them lose their anti66. Vinegar was early employed as an anti- scorbutic virtues when dried, and others when scorbutic, and our fleets were generally sup- boiled. Of the medicines which may be used, plied with it during the last century. Dr. LIND, and which are certainly occasionally serviceSir G. BLANE, Dr. TROTTER, and others, have able, even when other means have failed, I may shown that the distemper prevailed in ships mention the chlorate of potash, nitrate of potash, which were well supplied with this article. camphor, the chlorides, lime-water and the chloMuch, however, depends upon the kind of vin- ride of lime, chlorine, chlorinated water and chloegar employed. The pyroligneous acetic acidrinated soda, sarsaparilla, serpentaria, sassafras, certainly possesses considerable antiscorbutic capsicum, taraxacum, guaiacum, mezereon, seneproperties, much apparently depending upon the | gå, elm-bark, dulcamara, the several balsams, source and the preparation of this article. Dr. BUDD remarks, that he has observed scurvy in ships well supplied with vinegar; but the disease, in its most aggravated form, has appeared among those crews which had no regular allow ance of this article.

[The expressed juice of the Agave Americana (American aloe, or maguey, as it is termed in Mexico) has lately been used with great success in the American army in Texas for scorbutus. Dr. PERIN, U. S. A., reports several cases cured very promptly by the maguey, which go

&c.; but these are severally only of use for certain modifications and complications of the malady.

69. It has been frequently supposed, and the supposition too often acted upon, that fresh meat is of itself sufficient to prevent or to cure scurvy when it breaks out in ships, and this opinion may supersede the opportunity of procuring fresh vegetables and fruits. Dr. BUDD states, that, during the year in which he wrote on this disease, "the captain of a vessel trading to the Mauritius furnished his men, while they stayed