James Lind (1716–1794), who was known as the “Hippocrates of Naval Medicine”, was a Scottish physician, famous for his work on the discovery of the cure for scurvy, who also contributed to the advancement of preventive medicine and public health.

As for the cure for scurvy, it was indeed a remarkable achievement, given the fact that this disease, which we now know to be caused by the lack of vitamin C in the human body, killed more sailors than war at the time. For example, in the voyage around the world led by the British admiral George Anson, from a crew of about 1,900 men, nearly 1,400 died of this disease.

Lind concluded that eating citrus fruits could effectively prevent and cure scurvy. He was not the first to think that solving the problem would involve changing the sailors’ diet, specifically by including citrus fruits in it, but he was indeed among the first who conducted one of the earliest controlled medical experiments that actually demonstrated it.

Lind argued for a careful ventilation and airing of the boats and a more careful hygiene of the sailors, their clothes and sheets.

In 1753 he published A Treatise of the Scurvy and, in 1757, An Essay on the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen in the Royal Navy, where he gave an account of the deplorable living conditions of the sailors and their poor diets.

Lind’s discovery was only applied about 40 years later, when there were orders to include citrus juices in the sailors’ diets. This simple measure led to the virtual disappearance of scurvy in the British Navy.

The terrible effects of scurvy on the human body left a terrible impression, not only on seafarers but also on populations in general. Among us, Camoens’ verses in The Lusiad(Book V, 81-82) became famous:

A dread disease
its rankling horrors shed,
And death’s dire ravage
through mine army spread.
Never mine eyes such dreary sight beheld,
Ghastly the mouth and gums
enormous swell;
And instant, putrid

like a dead man’s wound,
Poisoned with foetid steams the air around.
No sage physician’s ever-watchful zeal,
No skilful surgeon’s gentle hand to heal,
Were found: each dreary mournful hour we gave
Some brave companion to a foreign grave.
A grave, the awful gift of every shore!
Alas! What weary toils with us they bore!

The effects of scurvy also found a literary expression among the English, as in the following verses, with a satirical tone:

Scurvy Pirate

What do you do with a scurvy pirate?
Load the cannon up and fire it.
What do you do with a scurvy pirate?
Make them walk the plank!

We’ll raid their scurvy pirate ship
and make them walk the plank.
Grab up all their treasure…
And put it in the bank!

British sailors were known since then as “limeys”, a derogatory slang nickname used by Americans and Canadians, originating from “lime juice”, a reference to the fact that they drank citrus juice.

LIND, James, 1716-1794

An essay on the most effectual means of preserving the health of seamen in the Royal Navy : and a dissertation on fevers and infection : together with observations on the jail distemper, and the proper methods of preventing and flopping its infection / James Lind. –  3rd ed. – London : D. Wilson and G. Nicol, 1774. – XX, 363, [1] p. ; 22 cm

22Library Reference Number-FML CDI: RES. 1413

LIND, James, 1716-1794

A treatise of the scurvy, in three parts : containing an inquiry into the nature, causes, and cure, of that disease : together with a critical and chronological view of what has been published on the subject / by James Lind …. –  The third edition, enlarged and improved. – London : printed for S. Crowder, D. Wilson and G. Nicholls, T. Cadell, T. Becket and Co., G. Pearch, and W. Woodfall, MDCCLXXII [1772]. – 1 vol.

Library Reference Number-FMUL CDI: RES. 4087

André Rodrigues

Library and Information Area

andresilva@medicina.ulisboa.pt