Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 13, MAT-MIC

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t1lC 11101116111 tlie3r attempt to rife or ftlr themfelves, then
tlle breathing becomes difficult, with a kind of ftraitnefs
m catching, and great oppreffion, and fometimes they
iiave been known to fall into a lyncope. This catch-
ing of the breath upon motion, with thelofs of ftrength,
dejection of fpirit, and rotten gums, are held as the ef-
iential or diltinguiffiing fymptoms of the difeafe 'J'he
Ikin is generally dry, except in the very laft ftage,
when the patients become exceedingly fubjedt to faint-
ings, and then it grows clammy and moift : in fome
it has an anferine appearance : but much oftener it is
fmooth and ffiining 5 and, when examined, is found
to be fpread over with fpots, not riling above the fur-
face, of a reddiffi, bluiili, livid or purple colour, with
a fort of yellow rim round them. At firft thefe fpots
are for the molt part fmall, but in time they increafe
to large blotches. I he legs and thighs are the places
woere they are principally feen : more rarely on the
head^ and face. Many have a fwelling of the legs,
which is harder, and retains the impreffion of the fin¬
ger longer than the common droplical or truly oede-
matous {'veilings. 1 he flighted: wounds and bruifes,
in feorbutic habits, degenerate into foul and unto¬
ward ulcers ; and the appearance of thefe ulcers is
fo Angular and uniform, that they are ealily diitin-
guilhed from all others. Scorbutic ulcers afford no
good digeftion, but give out a thin and fetid ichor
mixed with blood, which at length has the appear¬
ance of coagulated gore lying caked on the furface
of the fore, not to be feparated or wiped off without
fome difficulty. I he fleih underneath thefe doughs
feel1- to the probe foft and fpongy, and is very putrid.
Neither detergents nor efcharotics are here of any
fervice j for though fuch doughs be with great pains
taken away, they are found again at the next dreffing,
where the fame fanguineous putrid appearance always
presents itfelf. I heir edges are generally of a livid co
lour, and puffed up with excrefcences of proud ttefli ari-
fing from below the fkin. As the violence of the dif-
eale increafes, the ulcers diout out a foft bloody fungus,
which often nfes in a night’s time to a monftrous flze 5
and although deflroyed by cauteries, aflual or potential,
or cut away with the knife, is found at next drefling as
large as ever. It is a connderable time, however, be¬
fore thefe ulcers, bad as they are, come to affeA the
bones with rottennefs. 1 hefe appearances will always
ferve to affure us that an ulcer is feorbutic •, and fliould
put us on our guard with refpedl to the giving mer¬
curials, which are very generally pernicious in thefe
cafes.
Scorbutic people, as the difeafe advances, are feldom
free from pains • though they have not the fame feat
in all, and often in the fame perfon fliift their place.
Some complain of univerfal pain in all their bones •, but
mod violent in the limbs, and efpecially the ioints: the
mod frequent feat of their pain, however, is fome part
of the bread. 1 he pains of this difeafe feem to arife
from the diliraftion of the fendble Abres bv the extrava-
fated nlood being forced into the interftices of the peri-
odeum and of the tendinous and ligamentous parts j
whofe texture being fo Arm, the Abres are liable to higher
degrees of tenAon, and confequently of pain.
1 he dates of the bowels are various : in fome there
is an obdir.ate coflivenefs ; in others a tendency to a
Jfax, with extremely fetid ftools: the urine is alfo rank
4
C 1 N E- • Practice.
and fet,d generally Ugh coloured; and, when it l,as Scorb™,
itood tor tome hours, throws up an oily fcun, on the fur. 1 v—3
lace. 1 he pulfe is variable ; but molt commonly dower
and more feeble than in the time of perfedt health. A
itiftneis in the tendons, and weaknefs in the pAnts of
the knees, appear early in the difeafe : but as ho rows
more inveterate, the patients generally lofe the life of
their limbs altogether j having a contraction of the flexor
tendons m the ham, with a iwelling and pain in the
joint of the knee. Some have their legs monflroufly
iwelled, and covered over, with livid fpots or ecchy-
mdes ; others have had tumours there ; fome, though
without fwelling, have the calves of the legs and the
fleih of the thighs quite indurated. As perfons far gone
in the fcurvy are apt to faint, and even expire, on be-
mg moved and brought out into the frefh air, the ut-
moff care and_ circumfpedfi< n are requiflte when it is
neceflary to ftir or remove them.
Scorbutic patients are at all times, but more efneci-
aily as the difeafe advances, extremely fubied to pioT
fule bleedings from different parts of the body ; as fn m
the nofe, gums, inteflines, lungs, &c. and likewife
from their ulcers, which generally bleed plentifully if
the fungus be cut away. It is not eafy to conceive a
more difmal and diverflfied fcene of mifery than what is
beheld in the third and lad ftage of this diftempt r • it
being then that the anomalous and more extraordinary
fymptoms appear, fuch as the burfting out of old wounds
and the diffolution of old fradures that have been Ion J
united. 5
Cau/es. The term fcurvy has been indiferiminately
applied, even by phyficians, to almoft all the different
kinds of cutaneous foulnefs ; owing to fome writers of
the laft century, who comprehended fuch a variety of
fymptoms under this denomination, that there are few
chronic difteropers which may not be fo called, accord-
ing to their fcheme : but the difeafe here meant is the
true putrid fcurvy, fo often fatal to feamen, that with
many it has got the name of fea-feurvy, though it be a
difeafe frequently occurring on ffiore, as was experien¬
ced by the Britifh garrifons of Bofton, Minorca, and
many other places. Indeed no difeafe is perhaps more
frequent or more deftrudive to people pent up in gar-
rifons without fufficient fupplies of found animal food
and frefh vegetables. It is fometimes known to be en¬
demic in certain countries, where the nature of the
foil, the general ftate of the atmofphere, and the com¬
mon courfe of diet, all combine in producing that An¬
gular fpeeies of corruption in the mafs of blood which
conftitutes the fcorbutic diatheAs; for the appearances
on diffeding feorbutic fubjeds, fufficiently ffiow that
the feuryy may, with great propriety, be termed a dif¬
eafe of the blood.
. Dr L5.nd has> in a poftfeript to the third edition of
his treatife on the fcurvy, given the refult of his
observations drawn from the diffedion of a confider- '
able number of vidims to this fatal malady ; from which
it appears that the true fcorbutic ftate, in an advanced
ftage of the diftemper, confifts in numerous effufions
of blood into the cellular interftices of moft parts of
the body, fupei Acial as well as internal 5 particularly
the gums and the legs; the texture of the former
being almoft entirely cellular, and the generally de¬
pendent ftate of the latter rendering thefe parts, of
all others in the whole body, the moft apt to receive
and