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James Lind: Pioneer of Scurvy Prevention

James Lind (1716-1794) was a Scottish physician who made seminal contributions to understanding and preventing scurvy. He joined the British Naval Medical Service at age 23 and spent 10 years at sea observing diseases that afflicted sailors. In 1748, he published the first scientific study on scurvy, recommending inclusion of fresh fruits and vegetables or lime juice to prevent it. However, his recommendations went unheeded by the British Admiralty for over 40 years. He was later appointed Chief Physician of the Royal Naval Hospital, where he spent 25 years and continued his research into diseases affecting sailors in tropical climates.

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133 views1 page

James Lind: Pioneer of Scurvy Prevention

James Lind (1716-1794) was a Scottish physician who made seminal contributions to understanding and preventing scurvy. He joined the British Naval Medical Service at age 23 and spent 10 years at sea observing diseases that afflicted sailors. In 1748, he published the first scientific study on scurvy, recommending inclusion of fresh fruits and vegetables or lime juice to prevent it. However, his recommendations went unheeded by the British Admiralty for over 40 years. He was later appointed Chief Physician of the Royal Naval Hospital, where he spent 25 years and continued his research into diseases affecting sailors in tropical climates.

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dewi_kania_maemunah
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James Lind (1716-1794)

There were two famous Scots physicians called James Lind in the eighteenth century, one of whom
was twenty years younger than the other. The younger man wrote his doctoral thesis on malaria in
Bengal and was physician to the Royal Household, while the elder, more historically important, had a
lifelong interest in scurvy and was chief physician at the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar, overlooking
Southampton Water,.

The elder James Lind, who is the one commemorated on the frieze, was born in Edinburgh and
apprenticed to a surgeon there. When he was 23 he joined the Naval Medical Service and went to
sea where he spent most of the next ten years in the tropics learning at first hand about the diseases
of sailors and of hot climates. He noticed that the conditions on board ship and tropical diseases
killed far more men than war.

In 1748 Lind left the Navy, took his degree at the University of Edinburgh and set up in private
practice there. After ten years he published a Treatise on the scurvy which ran to three editions over
the next fifteen years. Lind recommended prevention by including fresh fruit and vegetables in the
diet of seafarers and insisted that there should be an issue of fresh lime juice when these were
unobtainable - thereby earning all British seamen the nickname of 'Limeys'. His recommendations
were ignored by the Admiralty for over forty years and Lind was dead when the powers-that-be
came round to his way of thinking.

In 1757 Lind published his Essay on the most effectual means of preserving the health of seamen in
the Royal Navy. The following year he was appointed Chief Physician to the Royal Naval Hospital at
Haslar, and, uprooting himself again, travelled south to spend the next twenty-five years in charge.
While at Haslar he produced an essay on diseases incidental to Europeans in hot climates which ran
to six editions, the last appearing after his death. He resigned from his post at Haslar in 1783
because of failing health, but he was able to enjoy eleven years of retirement.

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