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Limeys: The Conquest of Scurvy
In 1740, Commodore George Anson left Portsmouth with seven ships and nearly 2,000 men. He returned four years later with under 600. Only four were killed by the enemy; the rest died not as the result of war, weather or misnavigation, but of scurvy. Limeys is the dramatic history of Dr. James Lind's heroic efforts to find a cure for this 'dreaded disease' in the face of the corrosive patronage and establishment antipathy of the times. In the three centuries prior to 1800, it has been estimated that scurvy killed at least two million sailors. It was characterized by rotting gums, fetid breath, swelling limbs, malaise and hemorrhaging. Desperate men took any "cure" offered - urine mouthwashes, sulphuric acid, bloodletting, even burial up to the neck in sand. Most died. In 1747 Lind, a Scottish Naval Surgeon, conducted the first practical medical research to find a cure. He recommended lemons, oranges and their juice. Yet he was unable to penetrate the Admiralty high-mindedness, or to persuade them to enforce the fruits' universal application. Only in 1795, when court physician Gilbert Blane championed Lind's work, were the Sea Lords persuaded to act. But by then, James Lind had been dead for a year and thousands had needlessly perished. From sailors, citrus fruits and "Limeys" to the birth of Rose's Lime Juice Cordial, the world's first soft drink, this book tells the extraordinary, graphic and compelling story of the epic quest to conquer one of mankind's most terrible diseases.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 19, 2025
Upon completing this book, I squeezed some lemons and started downing the juice. There would be no scurvy for me! Although the title states that it's the story of one man against the establishment, it is the overall story of a very nasty disease that is the main subject.
A dread disease its rankling horrors shed,
And death's dire ravage through mine army spread.
Scurvy was already well-known in ancient times, but it took centuries before James Lind came along and discovered that citrus could help with the cure. Still, there were issues. Lind's recommendations were not really listened to, as he didn't have the political clout of fellow physicians, who were really hucksters. So the horrible disease continued to bring death until, in 1932, scientific studies confirmed what Lind had already defined almost two hundred years earlier.
Never mine eyes such dreary sight beheld,
Ghastly the mouth and gums enormous swell'd;
Humans are not able to manufacture their own ascorbic acid. If a person doesn't eat enough foods with vitamin C, the body starts to waste away, as the skin gets depleted of collagen. Imagine being a passenger or crew member on a long voyage in the 18th century, with only salted meat and stale water for food. Magellan's crews were decimated, Anson's crews were decimated, and soldiers, too, were cut down when fresh fruits were not available. Certainly one of the worst examples was the Crimean War when incompetent administration caused thousands of pounds of lemons and limes to waste as British soldiers died of scurvy.
Each dreary mournful hour we gave
Some brave companion to a foreign grave.
When the Royal Navy began experiments with lime juice, American sailors started to call the Brits, "Limeys", as a derogatory term. The moniker exists to this day. Finally, after WWI saw more scurvy cases within the trenches, science finally started coming around.
This was a very eye-opening book, but I had a bit of a problem with the layout and writing. It seemed as though I was re-reading what had just been stated in an earlier chapter, so the tightness of history was not there. The lengthy notes section shows the research was done, however. I certainly learned quite a bit and my dietary habits changed. For although we live in an 'enlightened' era, our fast-paced and artificial lives do not provide the foods we should be eating, which is why scurvy symptoms can be seen very quickly. You'll see it on your tongue first, then find the gums start to bleed.
Peppers, tomatoes, berries, papaya, cabbage, watercress, and grapefruit can help improve the malaise, if one doesn't want to eat oranges, lemons or limes. Heat kills the vitamin, so don't cook it, raw is best. Lessons, lessons.
Book Season = Spring (put the lime in the coconut)
A dread disease its rankling horrors shed,
And death's dire ravage through mine army spread.
Scurvy was already well-known in ancient times, but it took centuries before James Lind came along and discovered that citrus could help with the cure. Still, there were issues. Lind's recommendations were not really listened to, as he didn't have the political clout of fellow physicians, who were really hucksters. So the horrible disease continued to bring death until, in 1932, scientific studies confirmed what Lind had already defined almost two hundred years earlier.
Never mine eyes such dreary sight beheld,
Ghastly the mouth and gums enormous swell'd;
Humans are not able to manufacture their own ascorbic acid. If a person doesn't eat enough foods with vitamin C, the body starts to waste away, as the skin gets depleted of collagen. Imagine being a passenger or crew member on a long voyage in the 18th century, with only salted meat and stale water for food. Magellan's crews were decimated, Anson's crews were decimated, and soldiers, too, were cut down when fresh fruits were not available. Certainly one of the worst examples was the Crimean War when incompetent administration caused thousands of pounds of lemons and limes to waste as British soldiers died of scurvy.
Each dreary mournful hour we gave
Some brave companion to a foreign grave.
When the Royal Navy began experiments with lime juice, American sailors started to call the Brits, "Limeys", as a derogatory term. The moniker exists to this day. Finally, after WWI saw more scurvy cases within the trenches, science finally started coming around.
This was a very eye-opening book, but I had a bit of a problem with the layout and writing. It seemed as though I was re-reading what had just been stated in an earlier chapter, so the tightness of history was not there. The lengthy notes section shows the research was done, however. I certainly learned quite a bit and my dietary habits changed. For although we live in an 'enlightened' era, our fast-paced and artificial lives do not provide the foods we should be eating, which is why scurvy symptoms can be seen very quickly. You'll see it on your tongue first, then find the gums start to bleed.
Peppers, tomatoes, berries, papaya, cabbage, watercress, and grapefruit can help improve the malaise, if one doesn't want to eat oranges, lemons or limes. Heat kills the vitamin, so don't cook it, raw is best. Lessons, lessons.
Book Season = Spring (put the lime in the coconut)
February 15, 2015
I'm not crazy about the writing of the book, but the story fascinates me. It took the better part of the millennium to figure out the cure. The sad part is they had the cure, it took another 150+ years to nail it - they kept dumping it due to bad data, quack doctors, and everyone trying to claim their own stake in the cure of the disease. I bet history is repeating itself right now with other cures to diseases.
It's also fascinating how decidedly difficult getting to the cause of the vitamin C defiency really was. It all seems so elementary now, but the book did a good job explaining why everything got so garbled, even if it was too repetative in it's method of explaining it.
It's also fascinating how decidedly difficult getting to the cause of the vitamin C defiency really was. It all seems so elementary now, but the book did a good job explaining why everything got so garbled, even if it was too repetative in it's method of explaining it.
January 2, 2010
Interesting book, unfortunate title, poor writing. Harvie jumps around far too much, making his story anachronistic and difficult to follow. A bit too laudatory of James Lind whose "randomized controlled trial" could easily have been dumb luck in suggesting a cure for scurvy. At times, Harvie seems to berate a number of individuals and institutions for not accepting Lind's findings sooner, which strikes me as a bit disingenuous as the author benefits from hindsight and modern society's ability to spread knowledge broadly and quickly.
February 13, 2018
Abandoned on page 46 of 279. The author just seems to write things down at random. There is no clear narrative.
April 17, 2009
This book was interesting, but the author could have got away without trying to list every single mention of scurvy ever. Further, he seems to regard the system of patronage with handwringing horror, which quite frankly is rather irritating. Dude, it's the way the world goes around. It's just called 'networking' nowadays.
December 16, 2008
This is an author who could use a bit more focus in the writing. There were constant discursions into detail that wanders around the subject. However the basic subject was fascinating both as the history of the navy, medicine and the rise of the scientific method.
April 8, 2011
Covers a great deal of primary research in detail weather directly supporting the subject of the book or not. This is a fascinating subject but the author tends to be easily drawn into a great deal of extraneous detail.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews