Definition. Susceptible animals: pigs, dogs. Causes: unwholesome salt
meat, lack of fresh food, vegetables, potassium, bad environment,
unvarying diet, lack of free range, putrescent food, foul water,
infection; non-recurrence. Lesions: blood black, diffluent, little
rigor mortis, excess of sodium, petechiæ and extravasations, red
marrow, softened, swollen, bleeding, ulcerating gums. Symptoms:
Anorexia, prostration, debility, tardy movements, petechiæ, loss of
bristles, ulcers, gum lesions, joint swellings, blood extravasations.
Diarrhœa. Prognosis unfavorable. Treatment: correct unwholesome
environment and food, wash, rich food partly green or animal, iron,
bitters, arsenic, mouth wash (potassium chlorate), for suckling milk.
Butcher.
_Definition._ Scurvy is a subacute or chronic trophic disorder
characterized by debility, inanition, anæmia, swelling and bleeding of
the gums, gingival ulceration, dropping of the teeth, and petechial or
more extensive hæmorrhages and exudations in the skin, serosa, and solid
tissues.
_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.