ABSTRACT
Studies by J. M. Rivers and L. A. Carlson at the Mayo Clinic revealed low blood and urine vitamin C levels and a capillary fragility state in several patients who suffered repeated gastrointestinal haemorrhages, with or without demonstrable peptic ulceration. C. F. Davidson, B. T. Wood, and R. Platt all recorded their observations of scurvy in individual patients with peptic ulcers. Three patients with peptic ulcers uncomplicated by haemorrhage were found to be in a state of vitamin C sub-nutrition. J. Hansky and F. Allmand found that the dietary intake of vitamin C is significantly lower in patients admitted to hospital with gastrointestinal haemorrhage than in those of an age- and sex-matched control group of hospital patients. Autopsy studies of eight scorbutic guinea pigs, reported by J. Fabianek, revealed haemorrhages in the duodenum in two, in the small intestines of four, and in the cecum and ileocecal valve in two animals.
