
Scurvy
How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail
- 272 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Scurvy
How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail
About this book
In the Age of Sail scurvy was responsible for more deaths at sea than piracy, shipwreck and all other illnesses, and its cure ranks among the greatest of military successes – yet its impact on history has mostly been ignored.
Stephen Bown searches back to the earliest recorded appearance of scurvy in the sixteenth century, to the eighteenth century when the disease was at its gum-shredding, bone-snapping worst, and to the early nineteenth century, when the preventative was finally put into service. Bown introduces us to James Lind, the navy surgeon and medical detective, whose research on the disease spawned the implementation of the cure; Captain James Cook, who successfully avoided scurvy on his epic voyages; and Gilbert Blane, whose social status and charisma won over the British Navy.
Scurvy is a lively recounting of how three determined individuals overcame the constraints of eighteenth-century thinking to solve the greatest medical mystery of their era.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Maps
- Acknowledgements
- New Introduction for 2021 Edition
- Timeline
- Prologue: A Medical Mystery
- 1 The Eighteenth-Century Seafaring World: The Age of Scurvy
- 2 Scurvy: The Plague of the Sea
- 3 Disaster and Victory in the South Seas: Lord Anson’s Terrible Voyage
- 4 Found and Lost: The Search for a Cure Begins
- 5 An Ounce of Prevention: James Lind and the Salisbury Experiment
- 6 Unwinding the Knot: Rob and Wort and the Trials at Sea
- 7 Master Mariner: James Cook’s Great Voyages in the Pacific
- 8 Man of lnfluence: Gilbert Blane and the West Indies Fleet
- 9 Blockade: The Defeat of Scurvy and Napoleon
- Epilogue: The Mystery Solved
- Appendix: Vitamin C Contained in Common Foods of the Age of Sail
- A Note on Sources and Further Reading
- Bibliography