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3 unusual facts about scurvy


Armada of 1779

Scurvy weakened the crews, and in the hot, crowded shipboard conditions, typhus and smallpox also broke out.

Scurvy

In 1734, the Leiden-based physician Johann Bachstrom published a book on scurvy in which he stated that "scurvy is solely owing to a total abstinence from fresh vegetable food, and greens; which is alone the primary cause of the disease" and urged the use of fresh fruit and vegetables as a cure.

Timeline of the history of scientific method

1753 — First description of a controlled experiment using identical populations with only one variable: James Lind's research into Scurvy among sailors.


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Bachstrom Point

It was first charted by the British Graham Land Expedition, 1934–37, under John Rymill, and named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1959 for Johann Bachstrom, the author in 1734 of a classic pamphlet recognizing scurvy as a nutritional deficiency disease and prescribing the necessary measures for its prevention and cure.

Bering Island

Another of the expedition's survivors was Georg Wilhelm Steller, who eventually managed to convince his companions to eat seaweed (thus curing their scurvy).

C. fenestrata

Cochlearia fenestrata, the Arctic scurvy-grass, a plant species in the genus Cochlearia

Design of experiments

In 1747, while serving as surgeon on HMS Salisbury, James Lind carried out a controlled experiment to develop a cure for scurvy.

Frölich Peak

The peak was charted by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1908–10, under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1959 for Theodor C.B. Frölich, a Norwegian biochemist who in 1907, with Axel Holst, first produced experimental scurvy and laid the foundations for later work on vitamins.

Grog

Although they did not know the reason at the time, Admiral Edward Vernon's sailors were healthier than the rest of the navy, due to the daily doses of vitamin C that prevented disease (mainly scurvy).

Holst Point

It was first charted by the British Graham Land Expedition under John Rymill, 1934–37, and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1959 for Axel Holst, a Norwegian biochemist who in 1907, with Theodor C.B. Frölich, first produced experimental scurvy and laid the foundations for later work on vitamins.

Jean Gaspard de Vence

Then returned to the merchant navy and in 1767 aboard the ship «L'Auguste» take a cruise along the coast of Africa, near Cape St. Philip was in a shipwreck more than four months and get to Marseille, losing half the team from scurvy.

Mount Waugh

Named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1959 for W.A. Waugh, American biochemist who, with Charles Glen King, first identified the antiscorbutic component from lemon juice, making possible the production of synthetic vitamin C to prevent scurvy, in 1932.

Public health

James Lind's discovery of the causes of scurvy amongst sailors and its' mitigation via the introduction of fruit on lengthy voyages was published in 1754 and led to the adoption of this idea by the Royal Navy.

Royal Hospital Haslar

Dr James Lind (1716–1794), a leading physician at Haslar from 1758 till 1785, played a major part in discovering a cure for scurvy, not least through his pioneering use of a double blind methodology with Vitamin C supplements (limes).

From 1758 the chief surgeon was James Lind, who previously, though unwittingly, had discovered the cure for scurvy.

Smilax glyciphylla

It was used medicinally in the earliest days of the colony of Port Jackson for treating scurvy, coughs and chest complaints.

SY Morning

Ernest Shackleton joined the crew of Morning as he was suffering from scurvy.


see also