Malnutrition at Baldwin Hall Cemetery
Some of the evidence of malnutrition that we look for include scurvy and rickets. Overall, the people buried at the Baldwin Hall Cemetery were not affected by dietary deficiencies. This suggests that people in 19th century Athens, GA had access to the nutrition they needed.
Scurvy is caused by vitamin-C deficiency and it can create many tiny holes in areas close to chewing muscles, such as the roof of the mouth and the jaw (Ortner 2001). Fruits and vegetables are a good source of vitamin-C.
Only three individuals in the population (5.5%) showed evidence of possible scurvy. Because preservation at the Baldwin Hall Cemetery is very poor and lesions that are caused by scurvy can also be caused by other diseases, it is not possible to say definitively there was vitamin-C deficiency. Additionally, there is no trend in who may have been affected by vitamin-C deficiency (Table 1)
Table 1: Individuals with Possible Evidence of Vitamin-C Deficiency
| Subadult | Young adult | Mid-aged adult | |
| Probable Female | 1 | ||
| Male | 1 | ||
| Subadult | 1 |
Rickets is commonly caused by vitamin-D deficiency. A person who has rickets will have soft and semi-flexible bones, causing them to become curved (Larsen 2015).
Only one individual at the Baldwin Hall Cemetery showed evidence of possible vitamin-D deficiency (1.8%). The same individual, a probable young adult female, had some evidence of scurvy.