1. What Scurvy Did to Sailors' Gums, Teeth, and Old Wounds
The disease is called scurvy. When a sailor had it, their gums would bleed, and their teeth would become loose and fall out. But that was not all. Even wounds that had healed long ago would open up again [1].
Scurvy was not only a problem for adults. In young children, it could cause bleeding from the bones and poor bone growth [1].
2. How Scurvy Killed Many Sailors on Long Voyages
In the past, there was a time called the Age of Exploration. During this era, ships traveled to distant countries, a journey that took many months. Sailors could not eat fresh vegetables or fruit for such a long time. As a result, many people got scurvy [2].
It is estimated that about 2 million sailors died from scurvy during the Age of Exploration [2].
3. Strange Cures People Tried for Scurvy, Like Smelling Dirt
Because the cause of the disease was not known, people in the past tried treatments that seem strange to us today. There is a story that sick sailors were put in boxes and covered with soil. People believed that the smell of soil, which reminded sailors of land, might help them recover [3]. Of course, this did not cure the disease.
4. How Ship Doctor James Lind Tested Scurvy Treatments in 1747
In 1747, James Lind, a British ship doctor, conducted an experiment. He took 12 sailors who had scurvy and divided them into six groups of two. Each group was given a different treatment: cider, a mixture of sulfuric acid and alcohol (elixir of vitriol), vinegar, seawater, oranges and lemons, or a paste of garlic, mustard, and other things [4].
The results were clear. Only the two sailors who ate oranges and lemons recovered quickly, within about 6 days [4].
5. Why the British Navy Waited Until Around 1795 to Put Lemon Juice on Ships
After Lind’s experiment, citrus fruits were not immediately added to ships. The British Navy did not decide to put lemon juice on their ships until around 1795. This was nearly half a century after the experiment [5].
The nickname "limey" for British sailors is linked to the citrus juice they were given, but it only became widely used from the mid-19th century onward [5].
6. How Vitamin C Was Found to Be the Reason Citrus Cured Scurvy
We did not understand why oranges and lemons cured the disease until much later, in the 1930s. In 1932, research led by Albert Szent-Györgyi showed that a substance exists that prevents scurvy. In 1933, Walter Haworth and colleagues worked out its chemical structure and named it ascorbic acid, or "Vitamin C." Without enough of it, the body has trouble making collagen [6].
That was about 180 years after Lind's experiment. For all that time, people had known that citrus fruit worked without knowing why.
7. Why Did the British Navy Take So Long to Add Lemon Juice?
Why did it take nearly half a century for the British Navy to start putting lemon juice on ships after Lind’s experiment? You can imagine the reasons with your family. Was it because it cost too much money? Or did the juice go bad while it was stored on the ship?