OHYAT: Stiff Knees
Jan. 22nd, 2012 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinAfter some pretty harrowing adventures with crevasses and jumbled ice, the Second Returning Party under the command of Teddy Evans made it to the bottom of the Beardmore Glacier and onto the flat, relatively easy surface of the Barrier.
But the hard part of their journey was not over, oh no.
... Because ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY, Teddy complained to Lashly of stiffness behind the knees, which Lashly knew was an early warning sign of scurvy.
Vitamin C was not identified until 1930, so in 1910 the correlation between it and scurvy was unknown. There was evidence it was diet-related, and that it had something to do with the amount of fresh food one ate, but the going theory at least in this part of the world was that it was caused by tainted canned meat. There had been scurvy on the Discovery expedition which had been cured by banning preserved meat and eating only fresh (mostly seal), so this time around, Bill (a Discovery veteran and doctor who'd had a run-in with scurvy himself) got a bit of a reputation for his insistence that everyone stick to the fresh stuff. Vitamin C is most famously found in fresh fruits and vegetables, but there are trace amounts of it in fresh meat as well, and seal liver in particular – which they happened to have frequently with breakfast – so in a way by accident they had an adequately anti-scorbutic diet.
Nearly everyone preferred the potted meat to seal meat, and a few of the men were perpetually subverting Bill's orders and pilfering the Vienna sausages while he wasn't looking, but Teddy in particular was noted for his distaste of seal meat. Did he bring his scurvy on himself? It's hard to say, with the information we have, though it is possible – it's interesting at least that he was the only one who definitely had it to the point where such obvious symptoms showed.
What everyone knows about scurvy is that it makes your teeth fall out. What people don't generally know is that it's more than just the teeth – essentially the loss of Vitamin C affects the body's connective tissues, so you gradually start breaking down all over. Old scars will reopen, blood vessels weaken and one is easily bruised, the digestive tract suffers, even being touched is painful ... it is distinctly not nice. Eat your vegetables, kids!
Meanwhile, the First Returning Party was having medical adventures of their own. Their rations were proving insufficient; in Silas' journal he constantly complains of hunger, and they even started eating the oaty 'oilcake' that had been brought to supplement the ponies' diet with fat, and left at the depots they'd visited on the way back. When they got to One Ton on the 15th they finally got full rations again, but shortly after, Atch came down with something that had him 'going both ends' according to Silas (thank you for that, Silas) – they suspected the pemmican. He still insisted on pulling, though his companions preferred he'd ski alongside. Nearly home, though!
... as soon as we sighted the Barrier, Crean let go one huge yell enough to frighten the ponies out of their graves of snow, and no more Beardmore for me after this.– William Lashly
But the hard part of their journey was not over, oh no.
... Because ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY, Teddy complained to Lashly of stiffness behind the knees, which Lashly knew was an early warning sign of scurvy.
I asked him what he thought it was, and he said he could not account for it, so if he don't get rid of it I am to have a look and see if anything is the matter with him ... Tonight I watched to see his gums, and I am convinced he is on the point of something anyhow ...– William Lashly
Vitamin C was not identified until 1930, so in 1910 the correlation between it and scurvy was unknown. There was evidence it was diet-related, and that it had something to do with the amount of fresh food one ate, but the going theory at least in this part of the world was that it was caused by tainted canned meat. There had been scurvy on the Discovery expedition which had been cured by banning preserved meat and eating only fresh (mostly seal), so this time around, Bill (a Discovery veteran and doctor who'd had a run-in with scurvy himself) got a bit of a reputation for his insistence that everyone stick to the fresh stuff. Vitamin C is most famously found in fresh fruits and vegetables, but there are trace amounts of it in fresh meat as well, and seal liver in particular – which they happened to have frequently with breakfast – so in a way by accident they had an adequately anti-scorbutic diet.
Nearly everyone preferred the potted meat to seal meat, and a few of the men were perpetually subverting Bill's orders and pilfering the Vienna sausages while he wasn't looking, but Teddy in particular was noted for his distaste of seal meat. Did he bring his scurvy on himself? It's hard to say, with the information we have, though it is possible – it's interesting at least that he was the only one who definitely had it to the point where such obvious symptoms showed.
What everyone knows about scurvy is that it makes your teeth fall out. What people don't generally know is that it's more than just the teeth – essentially the loss of Vitamin C affects the body's connective tissues, so you gradually start breaking down all over. Old scars will reopen, blood vessels weaken and one is easily bruised, the digestive tract suffers, even being touched is painful ... it is distinctly not nice. Eat your vegetables, kids!
Meanwhile, the First Returning Party was having medical adventures of their own. Their rations were proving insufficient; in Silas' journal he constantly complains of hunger, and they even started eating the oaty 'oilcake' that had been brought to supplement the ponies' diet with fat, and left at the depots they'd visited on the way back. When they got to One Ton on the 15th they finally got full rations again, but shortly after, Atch came down with something that had him 'going both ends' according to Silas (thank you for that, Silas) – they suspected the pemmican. He still insisted on pulling, though his companions preferred he'd ski alongside. Nearly home, though!
