Infantile scurvy: its history.

Infantile scurvy: a historical perspective.

Scurvy, a disease of dietary deficiency of vitamin C, is uncommon today. Among diseases, scurvy has a rich history and an ancient past. The Renaissance (14th to 16th centuries) witnessed several epidemics of scurvy among sea voyagers. In 1747, James Lind, a British Naval surgeon, performed a carefully designed clinical trial and concluded that oranges and lemons had the most antiscorbutic effec...

A Case of Infantile Scurvy

was extremely apprehensive of the legs being handled. The legs were immobile, slightly flexed at the knees and the thighs were rotated outwards. The lower epiphyses of both the femurs were much enlarged and tender. One of the lower incisors was being cut and was almost through but there was neither swelling nor change of colour of the gum. There was no tendency to haemorrhages from any part of ...

Difficulties in diagnosing infantile scurvy before 1878.

Early nineteenth-century British paediatric authors usually wrote extensively about rickets while making no mention of infantile scurvy. The latter may indeed have been a rare disease among weanlings or, alternatively, one that escaped diagnosis. In the opinion of the paediatrician and historian, George Frederick Still, and of Morwenna and John Rendle-Short, some of the hazards formerly associa...

Two Cases of Infantile Scurvy

A Case of Infantile Scurvy or Scurvy-Rickets

Cases of the above kind are by no means common, and I think the following is for this reason alone worthy of being put on record.