快猫短视频

IN the age of sail, scurvy was the scourge of navies, merchant ships and any vessels on long voyages. Nowadays it hardly exists, but for a glimpse of its horrors read the first two pages of this book, the experience of a crewman on Commodore George Anson鈥檚 flagship Centurion in 1741.

Anson had been commanded by the British Admiralty to find and capture a Spanish ship that was making more or less regular voyages from South America to the Philippines laden with gold and silver. His expedition鈥檚 ships had around 2000 men on board when they left Portsmouth. About 200 returned, most of the rest dying from scurvy. It causes disintegration of connective tissue in the body. The inevitable result is an agonising death.

The trouble was that the food provided for ships (there are revolting descriptions of what sailors were fed) contained no vitamin C at all. James Lind, for some years a navy surgeon credited with performing the first controlled experiment, showed that lemon and orange juice could cure the disease, but the times and conventional medicine were against him. Enter Captain James Cook. He managed to complete long voyages of exploration without losing a man to scurvy, stocking up wherever he could with fresh vegetables and fruits.

It was obvious that scurvy could be defeated, but what was defeating it remained unknown. It vanished from the Royal Navy when Gilbert Blane, a physician with influence in high places, persuaded the Admiralty to start a daily ration of lemon juice for sailors. In the 20th century ascorbic acid was finally identified and synthesised, and most of the problems were over.

The Age of Scurvy is a gripping book and a bargain, full of adventure, big events and human nature at its best and worst.