Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail

by Stephen R. Bown

Book Overview

Scurvy took a terrible toll in the Age of Sail, killing more sailors than were lost in all sea battles combined. The threat of the disease kept ships close to home and doomed those vessels that ventured too far from port. The willful ignorance of the royal medical elite, who endorsed ludicrous medical theories based on speculative research while ignoring the life-saving properties of citrus fruit, cost tens of thousands of lives and altered the course of many battles at sea. The cure for scurvy ranks among the greatest of human accomplishments, yet its impact on history has, until now, been largely ignored. From the earliest recorded appearance of the disease in the sixteenth century, to the eighteenth century, where a man had only half a chance of surviving the scourge, to the early nineteenth century, when the British conquered scurvy and successfully blockaded the French and defeated Napoleon, Scurvy is a medical detective story for the ages, the fascinating true story of how James Lind (the surgeon), James Cook (the mariner), and Gilbert Blane (the gentleman) worked separately to eliminate the dreaded affliction. Scurvy is an evocative journey back to the era of wooden ships and sails, when the disease infiltrated every aspect of seafaring life: press gangs "recruit" mariners on the way home from a late night at the pub; a terrible voyage in search of riches ends with a hobbled fleet and half the crew heaved overboard; Cook majestically travels the South Seas but suffers an unimaginable fate. Brimming with tales of ships, sailors, and baffling bureaucracy, Scurvy is a rare mix of compelling history and classic adventure story.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312313918
• ISBN13: 9780312313913
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

`Scurvy is a hideous and frightful affliction ..'

Few discoveries are truly the consequence of a `eureka!' type discovery by one person. Most are the consequences of incremental knowledge and some coincidence of timing, event or circumstance that enables possibilities to be explored. And so it is with the cure for scurvy. Unfortunately, progress is rarely linear and solutions are often stumbled on before causation is scientifically understood. The Surgeon (Dr James Lind), the Mariner (Captain James Cook) and the Gentleman (Sir Gilbert Blane, who was also a physician) each contributed to the cure for scurvy even though none of them seemed to understand its cause. On long voyages and during periods of war, when the ready availability of sailors could not be assured, the issue of the relative health of seamen became important. `No matter how grand a ship was, it was useless without sailors and marines to properly sail it.' While I knew quite a bit about Captain James Cook's enviable record for scurvy reduction on his long voyages, I had very little appreciation of the respective roles of James Lind and Gilbert Blane. This relatively slender book goes quite some way to filling in those gaps. While the absence of scurvy may well explain British superiority at sea for a large period of the `Age of Sail', and its presence may well be a contributory reason to why Britain lost the American War of Independence, I'd like to explore those aspects further. This is a wonderful book for those interested in maritime history, medical discovery and serendipity of circumstance. I will be delving into the bibliography and the notes provided by Mr Bown to read more about scurvy. I will also be looking to read his other books. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Prof. William Wills

This was an excellent book and should be read by every grduate and medical student. It is a profound description what was one of the problems of the medical profesion and that still exist. Thank you for leting ne review this. W Wills

A Fascinating History

For those who are not familiar with life aboard long-distance sailing ships during the Age of Sail, this book is quite an eye-opener. The author pulls no punches when describing the dreadful living conditions that had to be endured by sailors and, he is particularly graphic in his descriptions of the horrible effects that scurvy had on those afflicted. He recounts the attempts made by certain key individuals to understand and cure the disease as well as the frustrating steps taken backwards when any significant progress that was made was set aside and ignored mainly due to the bureaucratic inertia that pervaded the British Royal Navy at the time. The writing style is clear, friendly and quite engaging such that the book is difficult to put down. This book would likely be of most interest to history buffs, medical history buffs and anyone interested in people's lives and times during the Age of Sail.

Yarrr!

This is an awesome book! This book is about the overlooked details involving scurvy, but goes into some great detail about life on a sailing vessel. Read this book!

Napoleon, Limes, Lemons and Limeys

This is a fascinating, often amusing book on a very interesting subject. It reads with all the gripping suspense of a well-written novel, while being meticulously researched to be historically accurate. Mr. Bown writes with his trademark contagious enthusiasm for his subject while answering all the questions you and I could possibly think to ask about scurvy. I had no idea, before reading this book, how horrifying the disease could be. The machinations of governments and navies are appalling, as is their total disregard for the plight of their apparently disposable mariners. Nor would I have guessed that the lowly lemon played a major role in defeating Napoleon! You have to wonder why history textbooks are so unnecessarily stultifying, when writers of Mr. Bown's caliber do such a wonderful job of making us gobble up their words as easily as citrus-flavoured Vitamin C tablets!