What did sailors use to cure their scurvy?
In the last five centuries sailors and some ships’ doctors used oranges and lemons to cure and prevent scurvy, yet university-trained European physicians with no experience of either the disease or its cure by citrus fruits persisted in reviews of the extensive but conflicting literature.
What did people eat to get rid of scurvy?
People were aware that once victims were on shore they could be recovered by eating scurvy grass, wild celery, wood sorrel, nasturtiums, brooklime, Kerguelen cabbage (Pringlea antiscorbutica), cabbage trees and other esculent plants growing on the shores of distant islands.
How did Sir Richard Hawkins cure scurvy with lemons?
Sailors who ate the ship’s rats were inadvertently protecting themselves – as the animal synthesizes its own vitamin C. Citrus fruit – another source of vitamin C – had already been suggested as a cure by some. The explorer Sir Richard Hawkins recorded in 1622 that “sower lemons and oranges” were “most fruitful…
What did Captain Cook do for scurvy at sea?
No one had a remedy for scurvy at sea – however; the best on offer was a battery of prophylactic measures, including portable soup (a preparation of dried vegetables), malt, sauerkraut, concentrated fruit juice (rob), vinegar, mustard, molasses and beans.
In the last five centuries sailors and some ships’ doctors used oranges and lemons to cure and prevent scurvy, yet university-trained European physicians with no experience of either the disease or its cure by citrus fruits persisted in reviews of the extensive but conflicting literature.
No one had a remedy for scurvy at sea – however; the best on offer was a battery of prophylactic measures, including portable soup (a preparation of dried vegetables), malt, sauerkraut, concentrated fruit juice (rob), vinegar, mustard, molasses and beans.
What foods do sailors eat when they are at sea?
If the sailors were at sea for many months they would not have fruits and vegetables for most of this time. Vitamin C is mainly found in fruits such as oranges, grapefruit, lemons, strawberries, and melons; or it is found in vegetables such as broccoli and bell peppers.
Sailors who ate the ship’s rats were inadvertently protecting themselves – as the animal synthesizes its own vitamin C. Citrus fruit – another source of vitamin C – had already been suggested as a cure by some. The explorer Sir Richard Hawkins recorded in 1622 that “sower lemons and oranges” were “most fruitful…