comparable lesions in dogs and came to the conclusion that the disorder
was one "very similar" to scurvy but not identical with it, the
essential difference being that in all animals there was a most marked
absorption of bone by osteoclasts.
Similar results were obtained by others. In 1904 Peiper and Eichloff
attempted to produce scurvy in dogs by means of a diet composed
exclusively of raw or of sterilized milk. The following year we find a
report by Esser of feeding goats on sterilized milk. None of these
studies hits the mark; a condition of fragilitas ossium was produced
rather than typical scurvy.
In 1907 the first systematic and convincing experimental study of scurvy
appeared. In this year Holst and Froelich published a preliminary
account of their classic work, undertaken in an endeavor to fathom the
nature of "ship beriberi," a disorder which disabled so many of the
sailors in the Norwegian navy. We must remember that until recently
attention has been focussed on the infectious diseases, and little
thought given to the investigation of nutritional disorders. Although
experimental investigation in this field may be stated to have been
initiated by this work, it in turn had been stimulated by a conception
of dietary diseases which had just begun to be realized. This new
viewpoint was the result of the work of Eijkman. As has been mentioned
in considering the pathogenesis of human scurvy, Eijkman demonstrated
that hens developed polyneuritis, a disease resembling beriberi, when
fed on polished rice, and that the simple change to a diet of unpolished
rice, or the addition of rice polishings to the dietary, sufficed to
protect or to cure. This work had been repeated and substantiated. It
was evident to those who considered the question that the old lines of
thought in regard to food and dietetics inadequately explained
remarkable phenomena of this kind. It was also clear that nutritional
disorders were subject to experimental investigation in a way similar to
the infectious diseases, which were absorbing the interest of the
various laboratories. It is unnecessary to review the rapid rise of
investigative work in this field. It may be stated, in general, that
during the past few years the investigations of scurvy have become so
numerous that an established research technic may be said to have
developed in connection with its study.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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