Changes in the Teeth of the Guinea-Pig, Produced by a Scorbutic Diet

The pathological anatomy of adult and infantile scurvy has received the attention of many investigators at various times, and is now known in great detail. Not only have the macroscopic but also the microscopic changes been fully studied. Definite characteristic abnormalities in the tissues of the bones, and at the costochondral junctions and the epiphyseal lines in scorbutic subjects, are well recognised. Although the gums are known to be greatly affected in advanced cases of scurvy and the teeth become loose, there has apparently been no chemical or histological work done hitherto on the teeth, since no references to such work can be found in the literature. This is most probably due to the fact that most of the histological work has been carried out in infantile scurvy. During the last few years, research in scurvy has been greatly stimulated by the discovery of the possibility of inducing experimental scurvy in animals. Holst and Frolich (1912) have shown that a pathological condition analogous to scurvy in the human subject can be induced in guinea-pigs by dietetic means. That the condition of the animals thus produced was really scorbutic was further confirmed by the observations of these investigators that it could be prevented by the addition of antiscorbutics to the deficient diet. These observations have since been fully corroborated by many workers. Hart and Lessing (1913) have further demonstrated that monkeys when fed on a diet deficient in antiscorbutic develop scurvy. This has been confirmed by Talbot, Dodd and Peterson (1913), and by Harden and Zilva (1919). The latter investigators have also shown that a monkey suffering from scurvy could be cured by administering an antiscorbutic.