logitechdog wrote:
*snip* As it turns out, the term "limey" originally applied to British sailors. In the 17th and 18th centuries, sailors suffered terribly from scurvy, a condition caused by a lack of vitamin C. Vitamin C comes mainly from fresh fruits and vegetables, but these foods aren't exactly easy to come by when you're at sea for months at a time. *snip*
*/
This is actually a sort of interesting story (to me at least, since I just finished a Master's in Public Health degree). The practice of giving lime juice to sailors was actually one of the first controlled clinical trials in modern medicine.
In the mid-1700's, the Brittish Naval Physician James Lind sought to address the problem of sailors dying at sea due to scurvy. At that time, medicine didn't have the concept of vitamins, so there was no way to know that scurvy was a result of vitamin-c deficiency. Lind had heard about citrus possibly curing scurvy (it was something that the East India Company had been recommending since around 1600, but there was no proof that it worked and it wasn't widely used as a treatment of scurvy). Lind decided to probe this matter further, and attempted to use citrus in an experiment. His hypothesis was that scurvy was a result of putrefication of the body due to lack of acid, so he attempted to treat sailors suffering from scurvy with a number of different acid-containing concoctions such as citrus, cider, or vinegar, and control groups that got seawater, barley water, or spicy paste. Of the citrus-treated group, all recovered and one was actually fit for duty for the remainder of the voyage.
Upon arriving back in the UK, Lind published his Treatise on Scurvy, which was largely ignored for some years. Eventually, in the late 1700's, the British Navy sought to implement his recommendations, but tried to cut corners with cheaper acids. Many of the modern physicians felt that the curative effect of citrus was due to acid content, although Lind continued to advocate the use of citrus. Finally, in 1794, the physician Gilbert Blaine issued citrus juice aboard a naval vessel as a treatment for scurvy and no one died on that voyage from scurvy. After that, lime juice was considered the treatment of choice for scurvy. It wasn't until after 1800 that the role of citrus juice was recognised as a prevention for scurvy. After that, the sailors were fed it regardless of whether they had scurvy or not.
22 Dec 2006, 1:15 am
