Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

by Laurence Bergreen

The intense suffering experienced by da Gama’s men, and later by Magellan’s, could have been prevented by a daily dose of one spoonful of lemon juice, for that is the amount of vitamin C necessary to prevent scurvy. In the body, vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, helps to manufacture the enzyme prolyl hydroxylase, which in turn synthesizes a protein collagen used for connective tissues such as skin, ligaments, tendons, and bones, all of which give our bodies tensile strength. A vitamin C deficiency leads to the melting of the collagen fibers and a breakdown in the connective tissues, especially in bones and in dentin, the building block of teeth. Collagen acts as a glue binding connective tissues together, and when it disintegrates, the tissues separate and capillaries hemorrhage, creating black-and-blue patches on the skin. (Curiously, Magellan’s men’s desperate hope that eating rats would avert scurvy had a basis in fact; unlike humans, rats synthesize and store vitamin C.)