feeding tainted tinned meat, cannot be unreservedly accepted, as they are substantiated by no pathological examination of the bones, and the diarrhoea and the blood and mucus in the stools do not suggest simple scurvy. Of those who held to the toxic origin of scurvy the majority had in mind an endogenous toxin, although the conception of the nature of this poison varied greatly. The minority report of the American Pediatric Society states that "scurvy appears to be a chronic ptomaine poisoning due to the absorption of toxins." Neumann considered scurvy a chronic poisoning, formed probably from the albumin of the milk, and considered the fact that the infant refused to take the harmful food as weighty evidence of its toxic nature. Kohlbrugge included scurvy in his group of "fermentive diseases," due to the overgrowth of harmful bacteria in the intestine, which are normally restrained by the acid reaction of the chyme. McCollum and Pitz, on the basis of a study of experimental scurvy, suggested that as the result of a break in the metabolism it might be due to the retention of fæces and consequent absorption of toxins. Still more recently Gerstenberger suggested that as the result of the break in the metabolism of carbohydrates, a defunctioning substance, possibly oxalic acid, is produced, which has a strong affinity for calcium. It is of no avail to discuss these various hypotheses--the formation of intestinal toxins--except where they are based on observations which can be tested and controlled. This is true solely of _the relation of constipation to scurvy_, and we shall confine ourselves therefore to a consideration of this aspect of the question.