Scurvy cases (notably French soldiers eating fresh horse meat), it was discovered that meat alone, even partly cooked meat, could alleviate scurvy. Conversely, in other cases, a meat-only diet could cause scurvy. Scott's 1902 Antarctic expedition used lightly fried seal meat and liver, whereby complete recovery from incipient scurvy was reported to have taken less than two weeks. Hippocrates documented scurvy as a disease, and Egyptians have recorded its symptoms as early as 1550 BCE. The knowledge that consuming foods containing vitamin C is a cure for scurvy has been repeatedly rediscovered and forgotten into the early 20th century. In the
Vitamin A deficiency reference point for the extent of deficiency (with mortality increasing with severity of the eye disease). In a longitudinal study of preschool Indonesian children, susceptibility to disease increased nine times when severe VAD was present. The reason for the increased infection rate in vitamin A deficient populations is the T-killer cells require retinoids to proliferate correctly. Retinoic acid binds the promoter region of specific genes, so activates the transcription process and cell replication. A vitamin A-deficient diet will have a very limited surplus of retinol, so cell proliferation and replication will be suppressed, contributing to a reduced number of T-cells