EXOPHTHALMOS IN INFANTILE SCURVY

Abstract

While it is difficult to state with any certainty the earliest description of scurvy, "the reference of Hippocrates to a large number of men in the army who suffered from pains in the legs, and gangrene of the gums, which was accompanied by loss of teeth, seems sufficiently definite to be identified as this disease" (Hess¹). Its occurrence in infants was first recorded by Glisson in 1668, but not until 1862 was there any mention of exophthalmos as a complication, when Moeller²reported its presence in a case of "acute rickets" which, in view of subsequent knowledge, was undoubtedly one of scurvy. Magnus,³in 1878, was the next to record exophthalmos in infantile scurvy; however, little was known of the disease until 1883 when Barlow⁴published his classic paper giving anatomic proof that this disorder of infants showed the pathologic changes characteristic of adult scurvy. This