Limeys : the true story of one man's war against ignorance, the establishment and the deadly scurvy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Limeys : the true story of one man's war against ignorance, the establishment and the deadly scurvy
Sutton, 2002
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In 1740, Commander George Anson left Portsmouth with seven ships and nearly 2000 men. Three years later less than 600 returned. Only four were killed by the enemy - the rest not being killed by war, weather or misnavigation, but by scurvy. This work is the history of Dr James Lind's efforts to find a cure for this dreaded disease in the face of prejudice and political and establishment antipathy. In the three centuries prior to 1800, it has been estimated that scurvy killed at least two milliom sailors. It was characterized by rotting gums, foetid breath, swelling limbs, malaise and haemorraghing. Desperate men took any cure, including common purging or cupping, urine mouthwashes, ingestion of sulphuric acid, spruce beer or sauerkraut, even burial up to the neck in sand. Most died. In 1747, Lind, a Scottish surgeon who sailed with the Royal Navy, became the first to prove the efficacy of citrus juice in combating the disease. Yet he was unable to penetrate the high-minded disregard of those in authority, or to persuade them to enforce the universal application of fruit. Thousands needlessly died and it was 1795 before the findings were accepted.
By this time, James Lind had been dead for a year. Today Lime Juice Cordial from Cadbury-Schweppes is not only enjoyed by ailing sailors, but also by millions worldwide as the world's first ever soft drink.
by "Nielsen BookData"