Customer Reviews

The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the bible on scurvy and its cure. Scurvy is said to have caused more misery then all diseases and to have killed 100,000s of people at sea. This book was the first true study of the disease and the history of mans seek to cure it. During the age of sail every voyage was plagued with preventing scurvy. Most prone to scurvy were the exploration expeditions that the Europeans launched all over the world from the 1400s to the late 1800s. For 400 years, as this book supremely documents, Scurvy was THE problem with seafaring, because if the crew died it really didn't matter if you found land or not. Thus many remedies were tested and tried, some that did NOTHING and others that hit the nail on the head without realizing it. For instance it was observed that the Eskimoes, who subsisted on an all meat diet, did not have scurvy. The European sailors who were experimenting by bringing using fresh vegetables to combat the Scurvy, were suddenly dumfounded, not realizing that Vitamin C existed potently in raw meat as it did in Limes. This wonderful book weaves many amazing tales of hardship, survival, experimentation and the like. An important work and a good read.