eBook - ePub
Scurvy
How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail
- 267 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Scurvy
How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail
About this book
This lively history of the dreaded disease "weav[es] a tale of medical discovery into a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas" (
The Toronto Star).
Scurvy took a terrible toll in the Age of Sail, killing more sailors than were lost in all naval combat 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 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 human accomplishments, yet its full impact on history is little understood.
From the earliest recorded appearance of the disease in the sixteenth century, to the eighteenth century, when 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.
It is also 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 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, this is a "splendid, popular telling of the scurvy story" ( American Geographical Society).
"Gripping . . . full of adventure, big events, and human nature at its best and worst." — New Scientist
"Excellent medical—and naval—history." — Booklist
Scurvy took a terrible toll in the Age of Sail, killing more sailors than were lost in all naval combat 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 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 human accomplishments, yet its full impact on history is little understood.
From the earliest recorded appearance of the disease in the sixteenth century, to the eighteenth century, when 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.
It is also 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 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, this is a "splendid, popular telling of the scurvy story" ( American Geographical Society).
"Gripping . . . full of adventure, big events, and human nature at its best and worst." — New Scientist
"Excellent medical—and naval—history." — Booklist
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Scurvy by Stephen J. Bown in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Histoire & Histoire prémoderne. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Table of Contents
- 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 INFLUENCE: 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
- Timeline
- A Note on Sources and Further Reading
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
- Index
- Additional Praise for Stephen R. Bown’s Scurvy
- Copyright Page