On the new theories and experiences of scurvy : read before the Bombay Medical and Physical Society, with additions from the author's contributions to the Lancet &c. / by Cameron Macdowall.

  • Macdowall, Cameron Joseph Francis Stuart, 1832-
Date:
[1884?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the new theories and experiences of scurvy : read before the Bombay Medical and Physical Society, with additions from the author's contributions to the Lancet &c. / by Cameron Macdowall. 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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    Dr. Grreene's fof Monte Videoj valuable experience (Laneety 21st April 1883 ) goes to prove that it is necessary to eat about four or five pounds of meat at a meal, or two sheep a tveek ^ or a corresponding quantity of beef, per man, besides drinking a vegetable infusion (of Mat^) comparatively fresh, and not from dessicated, baked leaves, like our teas, ad-libitum, and using fresh fruit, &c., for one month in twelve, to keep clear of scurvy in South America. Scurvy is very prevalent at times amongst soldiers &c. in South Africa, although the rations of fresh meat are plentiful. (Sir A. Home V. C; K. C. B. & Surgeon Major D. B. Brown &c. &c.) It may be objected that at the Cape and South Africa generally the cold is not sufficiently intense to preserve- the meat in that state of Alkalinity which Dr. Ralfe says is necessary. But in the Crimea the cold was such as to freeze our- breath into solid icicles on our moustachios. The fresh meat ration was not deficient there nor in Paris where the cold was intense during the siege. Yet as the cold weather came on and the thermometer fell so did Scurvy begin and increase and that simultaneously with the want of fresh vegetables. Surely these are good test cases of the fresh-meat-cure theory. It rests with the distinguished Pathological Chemist Dr. Ealfe to inform us what degree of cold will suffice to make meat thoroughly antiscorbutic. In Afghanistan the cold did not approach what I experienced both in the Crimea and in Paris. It also seems to be extraordinary that the alkalies so largely contained in biscuit peas &c. should not counteract any slight excess of acidity in muscle that has undergone the chemical (fermentive ? ) changes of Rigor mortis i. e. meat killed in temperate climates. Just one little anecdote to close this tedious paper. A Surgeon after the Afghan war told me that none of the meat-