The influence of infantile scurvy on growth (length and weight)

Abstract

Infants fed on milk that has been pasteurized (heated to 145° F. for 30 minutes) develop scurvy, provided fruit juices or other anti-scorbutic food is not added to their diet. This scurvy is of a subacute type, requiring two or more months to manifest itself. Under otherwise excellent surroundings it developed among infants in an asylum, where the babies are weighed daily and measured fortnightly. Its effect on growth could thus be carefully followed. In this connection, three periods may be distinguished: one of about three months when orange juice was given, a second of about four months when the infants did not obtain fruit juice, and a third extending over about a half year, where they once more obtained orange juice.

It was found that in almost every instance a gradual failure to gain in weight accompanied the absence of orange juice from the diet, and that this failure was corrected when the juice of the orange, or the orange peel (even though boiled) was again given (Chart 1). In most cases increase in length was likewise retarded by the scorbutic condition and this stunting was corrected by means of the fruit juices; a notable instance may be seen in Chart 2.