The occurrence of scurvy in the navy and on sailing vessels has been
associated in the minds of many with the large amounts of salted meat
which necessarily was included in the dietary. It was evident that meat
that was salted had no antiscorbutic value, but the query has been
raised whether eating a considerable amount of salted meat did not
induce scurvy. Lind mentions "flesh long salted" as leading to the
development of scurvy. The question of the value of meat as an
antiscorbutic is of importance at the present time, chiefly in
connection with Polar expeditions and army rations. As the result of an
outbreak of scurvy in the Polar expedition of 1875-6, a British Arctic
Survey Committee was appointed to make an investigation. In 1877 it
reported that "although the scurvy was due to the absence of lime juice
from the sledge dietaries, meat in large amounts is able to prevent the
disease." Stefánsson also emphasized the value of meat in preventing
scurvy in the Polar regions. In his expeditions he has found that raw
meat, if taken in sufficient quantity, is able to afford complete
protection. Jackson, who lived for some years among the Samoyeds, tells
us that this tribe, owing to the fact that they consumed considerable
reindeer meat, never suffered from scurvy in spite of the fact that they
ate no vegetables or fresh fruit during the winter.
The following account, a personal communication from Dr. Harrison J.
Hunt, who spent four years in the Arctic regions, is of interest in this
connection:
"For some four years I was with the Smith Sound Eskimos, on the
northwest coast of Greenland. These people get nothing but animal food
normally, and have lived that way for many generations, yet are healthy,
of good physique, and are normal in other ways. Scurvy was unknown to
them as far as I could ascertain; certainly there was none while I was
among them. Much of their meat is eaten raw, and the rest only partly
cooked; that is, 'rare done.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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