He was one of the first victims of scurvy, which, in the succeeding few weeks, carried off so many.

All of us who had read sea-stories had read much of this disease and its horrors, but we had little conception of the dreadful reality.

It usually manifested itself first in the mouth.

The breath became unbearably fetid; the gums swelled until they protruded, livid and disgusting, beyond the lips.

The teeth became so loose that they frequently fell out, and the sufferer would pick them up and set them back in their sockets.