scurvy

scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency from the difficulty, during the days of sail, of preserving fresh fruit and vegetables. It usually became apparent after about six weeks on salt provisions, and was a common ailment when long voyages of exploration by sea began in the 16th century. The first symptoms were usually swellings on the gums and the falling out of teeth, followed by blotches on the skin and a dull lethargy from which a man could be roused only when his life was threatened. In the 18th century more British Navy seamen died of the disease than were ever lost in battle.

To combat the disease the Chinese, as early as the 5th century, grew ginger plants aboard their ships and by the 14th century had, by purely empirical means, ‘arrived at an understanding of the role some kinds of food could play in preventing or curing diseases like beri-beri. The Dutch, in contact with Chinese-influenced south-east Asia, probably learned there that greenstuffs and citrus fruits could be important in a sea diet and passed the message on to Europe’ ( R. Tannahill , Food in History (rev. edn. 1988), 227).
After the appalling casualties caused by scurvy on Anson's voyage round the world in 1740–4, Dr James Lind (1716–94), a British naval surgeon, published his Treatise of the Scurvy in 1753 in which he recommended the navy follow the Dutch practice of taking citrus fruits on long voyages. However, it was not until the naval physician Sir Gilbert Blane (1749–1834) became a commissioner of the Sick and Wounded Board in 1795 that Lind's recommendations were followed. Lemon juice was made a compulsory issue—usually in the grog ration—and this virtually eradicated the disease in the Royal Navy.

In the mid-19th century lime juice replaced lemon as it was cheaper, and the Parliamentary Act of 1844, later reinforced by another Act in 1867, laid down its issue to the crews of merchant ships. But it was not then known that limes have only half the anti-scorbutic value of lemons, and scurvy recurred if insufficient doses of lime juice were used; and in merchant ships scurvy even increased in the decade 1873–83. The disease was not finally conquered until vitamins were discovered during the early decades of the 20th century. See also ‘limey’. Carpenter, K. , History of Scurvy and Vitamin C (rev. edn. 1988).