Twenty-two elderly people, who were vegetarians for many years, had high ascorbic-acid values in plasma (10.2 +/- 0.4 mg/l) and leucocytes (35.9 +/- 1.99 mug/10(8)WBC). Visual and photographic examination of their tongues showed a much lower incidence of sublingual petechiae and varicosities than is general in elderly people. It is proposed that previous, perhaps recurrent, vitamin deficiencies may lead to irreversible changes in the elderly that cannot subsequently be changed by vitamin-therapy. An epidemiological comparison between populations who have long maintained a high vitamin-status and those whose vitamin-status has been variable may be more informative than therapeutic trials of the effect of vitamins on these lesions.