In view of the fact that scurvy is endemic among adults in Russia, we
should also expect to find infantile scurvy widespread in that country.
In point of fact, quite the contrary seems to be the case. In connection
with the great scurvy epidemic in Russia (1898-99), Tschudakoff
personally examined over 10,000 persons and found 11.11 per cent. of the
people sick with this disease. He states that in the course of this
large experience he did not meet with a single case under the age of
five years. Fuerst writes that Filatow, the great Russian children's
specialist, declared that he knew of no case of Barlow's disease
described in the Russian literature. This is not literally correct, as
Doepp described an epidemic of scurvy in the St. Petersburg Foundling
Asylum occurring in 1831. It serves to emphasize, however, the paucity
of cases among infants in this great land of endemic adult scurvy.
Lyabmow, in referring to the scurvy in Kazan, tells us that among 28,000
cases only a few infants were affected, and Rauchfuss made the statement
at the International Congress at Copenhagen, in 1884, that although he
had seen a great many cases of scurvy, he had never seen it in children
one to two years of age. We shall not, in this place, comment on this
interesting and apparently paradoxical situation, but shall have
occasion to refer to it in considering the pathogenesis. It may be added
that in Norway and Sweden, where scurvy is to some extent also endemic
among the adult population, there is a similar lack of scurvy among
infants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account