- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: The History Press; New edition edition (Oct 25 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0750939931
- ISBN-13: 978-0750939935
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 200 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,315,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
In 1740, Commodore George Anson left Portsmouth with seven ships and nearly 2,000 men. He returned four years later with under 600. Only four were killed by the enemy; the rest died not as the result of war, weather or misnavigation, but of scurvy. Limeys is the dramatic history of Dr. James Lind's heroic efforts to find a cure for this 'dreaded disease' in the face of the corrosive patronage and establishment antipathy of the times.
In the three centuries prior to 1800, it has been estimated that scurvy killed at least two million sailors. It was characterised by rotting gums, foetid breath, swelling limbs, malaise and hemorrhaging. Desperate men took any 'cure' offered - urine mouthwashes, sulphuric acid, bloodletting, even burial up to the neck in sand. Most died.
In 1747 Lind, a Scottish Naval Surgeon, conducted the first practical medical research to find a cure. He recommended lemons, oranges and their juice. Yet he was unable to penetrate the Admiralty high-mindedness, or to persuade them to enforce the fruits' universal application. Only in 1795, when court physician Gilbert Blane championed Lind's work, were the Sea Lords persuaded to act. But by then, James Lind had been dead for a year and thousands had needlessly perished.
From sailors, citrus fruits and 'Limeys' to the birth of Rose's Lime Juice Cordial, the world's first soft drink, this book tells the extraordinary, graphic and compelling story of the epic quest to conquer one of mankind's most terrible diseases.
About the Author
David I. Harvie is a freelance film editor and regularly contributes to features on history and social history to newspapers and magazines, as well as talks for BBC Radio 4. His lines around the City, an anthology on Glasgow, was published by Lindsay Publications in 1997. He lives in Dumbarton, Scotland.
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4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
strickensailors, May 14 2007
By Dr. P. R. Lewis "truth hound" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Limeys: The Conquest of Scurvy (Paperback)
Given the current obsession with food quality and nutrition, this timely book addresses the problem of vitamin deficiency and the quest for a cure for scurvy over the recent past. Long sea voyages by early explorers created many problems for the crews, not least of which was the debilitating effects of scurvy. Frequently fatal, symptoms included rotting of teeth, swelling of limbs and loss of blood. The story of the solution to the problem was suspected for many years as the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables, but why did it take so long to finally solve the affliction? The story is well told by Harvie, and of course is intimately linked to the development of new ways of preserving food for those long sea voyages. One outcome was the development of lime juice, hence the title of the book. But the problem recurred at the turn of the 20th century in expeditions to the arctic and antarctic, and it is thought that scurvy affected Captain Scott in his final fatal trip. It was not until the 1920's that the active ingredient , vitamin C, was isolated that the problem was finally solved. This story deserves retelling, and Harvie makes a good contribution to popularising the account. When will we see similar accounts of the conquest of rickets (vitamn D deficiency) and beri-beri (vitamin B deficiency)?
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