James Lind and Curing Scurvy in the 1700s

Today we use the word “scurvy” as a general adjective for something that is corrosively destructive, like “religious bigotry was a scurvy of the Medieval Church.” Of course, these were the attributes of the OG disease, which blighted many people — but notably sailors — until a cure was found in the 1700s.

Many of us know the story, even if we think we forget: on a British naval patrol ship, men began to suffer from the necrotizing effects that were the hallmarks of the disease. One British commander, George Anson, described its symptoms: a “luxuriancy of funguous flesh . . . Putrid gums and . . . The most dreadful terrors.” I selected a mid-19th century illustration for yunz here to spare you actual photos.

On this particular occasion in 1747, James Lind, the medic of the ship _HMS Salisbury_ decided to get to the bottom of things. As he later recorded, he decided to treat his patients by dividing them into groups and testing different remedies that had been promoted at the time. Six groups of men, and each got different treatment — vinegar, purgatives, sea water (!), cider, sulfuric acid (they called it “vitriol”), and citrus fruits/oranges and lemons. We know which turned out to work, eventually leading to the moniker “limies” for British sailors.

Curing scurvy was great. However, it took decades (until 1795) for the government to recognize the importance of the fruit — results were skewed because Lind tried cooking the juice for easy transportation and unknowingly destroyed the Vitamin-c that caused its effectiveness.

Much more significant, however, is Lind’s creation of the clinical trial, controlling variables to see whether a particular element made a difference in the experiment. Lind was one of the first people to develop this method, now considered a bedrock of the scientific process of discovery that has led to the understanding of so many properties of the physical world.