Early Nutritional Research

[Guest guest]

From the pages of the " Scientific American " comes the tale of one of the

first controlled experiments in clinical nutrition, one which addressed the

scrourge of scurvy among sailors who were sea-bound for months at a time.

<http://www.sciam.com/1999/0399issue/0399connections.html>

Some extracts from this story run thus:

<In May 1747, on the good ship Salisbury, Lind carried out probably the first

proper controlled trial in the history of clinical nutrition. For 14 days, he

kept six pairs of scurvy patients on the same diet but gave each pair different

medicine: cider, elixir vitriol, vinegar, seawater, a " medicinal paste " and

oranges with lemons. The citrus fruit did the trick. In 1753 Lind published

" A Treatise of the Scurvy, " as a result of which, years later, the Royal Navy

started issuing lime-juice rations to sailors. Who then never got scurvy but had

to put up with being called " limeys. "

Lind had been inspired to his researches by the shock of news of a naval

expedition gone horribly wrong. In 1740 Commodore Anson had sailed from

England with six ships and more than 1,000 men. His mission: to head for the

Pacific and clobber the Spanish wherever he found them. He did so, in spades,

attacking Spanish ports and ships, laying waste right and left in the usual

manner. He came home four years later with so much treasure it took 30 wagons to

haul it from the docks to the Tower of London for safekeeping. Every man walked

off Anson's mission rich for life. There was a lot more booty for each man to

share because of the original six ships and 1,000 crew, only one ship with

145 men made it back. Scurvy had killed the rest.>

And here is a website which quotes part of the original scientific

publication, entitled Lind " A Treatise of the Scurvy in Three Parts.

Containing an inquiry into the Nature, Causes and Cure of that Disease,

together with a Critical and Chronological View of what has been published on

the subject. " A. Millar, London, 1753:

<http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/scurvy.html>

Its conclusions? Read on:

<As I shall have occasion elsewhere to take notice of the effects of other

medicines in this disease, I shall here only observe that the result of all

my experiments was that oranges and lemons were the most effectual remedies

for this distemper at sea. I am apt to think oranges preferable to lemons,

though it was principally oranges which so speedily and surprisingly

recovered Lord Anson's people at the Island of Tinian, of which that noble,

brave and experienced commander was so sensible that before he left the

island one man was ordered on shore from each mess to lay in a stock of them

for their future security. & hellip; Perhaps one history more may suffice to

put this out of doubt.>

---------------------

Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA