The scurvy occurring on land was deemed to be different from that occurring at sea, and its frequency afloat brought into unmerited disrepute the sailor's salt diet, and its saline materials were even considered the chief offending cause. This idea was rejected by numerous observers, who assigned as the chief causative rôle in scurvy deficiency in vegetable food, especially of the fresh, succulent variety. The particular constituent of this sort of food, so powerful in warding off scurvy and of curing it when prevention has failed, has baffled discovery. Dr. Aldridge attributed it to mineral elements generally. Dr. Garrod singled out the potassic salts as the particular one to which the specific action must be attributed; but neither of these views has gained in credit. From all the facts, both positive and negative, we may reasonably assume that the essential dietetic error leading to the development of scurvy, in the immense majority if not in all cases, consists in a deficiency in the variety of food; that is to say, there is not the requisite proportion of animal matter with a diversity of vegetable substances. No single natural order contains plants that supply all the elements essential to the nutrition of the body and the right composition of the blood. The graminaceous and leguminous articles of food, for instance, are numerous, but not various; they all afford the same or analogous albuminous elements, which have about the same nutrient value as the corresponding substances in animal food, and hence health and vigor cannot be sustained on a diet of flesh, combined with wheat, rice, and oatmeal or with beans and peas, or with all of them together. Outbreaks of scurvy have occurred on shipboard, where the ration is made up principally of these articles; as in Anson's ship, when supplied with an abundance of fresh animal, farinaceous, and leguminous foods. It is clear, therefore, that in order to obtain a variety of materials required in nutrition, we must resort to several of the natural groups, those particularly which comprise the succulent vegetables and fruits.