stefansson-wrangel-09-40-004-003

Scurvy 3

Castel (in command), Karl Andersen, Lorne Knight
a Harold Noice and one Eskimo; I learnt later
that the diet of this party had been mainly
rice, pilot bread, pemrican, Bovril, sugar (salty),
honey and a little fresh meat, cooked. The
Eskimo, in addition, occasionally ate some raw
fresh meat kept for dogfeed. Castel ate the
salty, cooked food but he had previous to
taking command of this party lived nearly
exclusively on meat all winter, some of it
eaten raw and little salt used. The second
party, that travelled behind, had a diet differing
from the first party in less use of salt and
more use of meat, both cooked and raw. No
one in that section developed scurvy at any
time.

Early in April Andersen, when my party
caught up to the advanced section, complained
to me of having been gradually becoming more
unwell for a week or two. The first symptom
noted by him was dizziness on suddenly standing
up, ''laziness", gloom and irritability showing
itself in a tendency to condemnatory and uncalled for
argmentativeness, proneness to becoming tired,
and loosening of the teeth and a swelling and
recession of the gums witha dull, local ache in
the gums or roots of the teeth. The appetite
was normal as to both quantity and kind of food
desired except there was an increased aversion
to frozen, raw meat - occasionally eaten by
most of us in the form especially of frozen
liver, a dish few persons can try serveral times
without lssxxing acquiring a taste for it.

I told Andersen at once that the case looked like
scurvy to me, but I added; It can’t be, for you
have lived on fresh meat most of the winter".
To this he replied ’'No, sir, it can’t be” - a
dutiable reply, but not enlightening. So
I decided the gum condition indicated pyorrhoea
alveolaris and we acted accordingly. I sent
Andersen south with the first returning support
party going towards ou bass at Cape Kellett,
Banks Island.

I learnt later that on the way south
Andersen's symptoms continued to develops
along the same lines and he lost gradually in
strenght. On reaching Melville Island the
party failed to find food at an expected rendesvous
and for two or three days they had been on short
rations, arriving without food at a place where
several muskoxen had been killed and one left
behind, unskinned and intended for degfeed. The
coat of this animal is so warm that in the
coldest we ther of winter decay for several
days proceeds on the basis of the body heat
before being arrested by frost. This animal
was therefor very '‘rotten", but the party were
hungry and promptly devoured considerable of the
frozen meat. All men who know the two methods