Note 14 — CHAP. III.

Lemon juice was known to be a remedy for scurvy far superior to all others 200 years ago, as appears by the writings of Woodall. His work is entitled “The Surgeon’s Mate, or Military and Domestic Medicine. By John Woodall, Master in Surgery London, 1636,” p. 165. In 1600, Commodore Lancaster sailed from England with three other ships for the Cape of Good Hope, on the 2d of April, and arrived in Saldanha Bay on the 1st of August, the commodore’s own ship being in perfect health, from the administration of three table-spoonsfull of lemon juice every morning to each of his men, whereas the other ships were so sickly as to be unmanageable for want of hands, and the commander was obliged to send men on board to take in their sails and hoist out their boats. (Purchas’s Pilgrim, vol. i. p. 149.) A Fellow of the college, and an eminent practitioner, in 1753 published a tract on sea scurvy, in which he adverts to the superior virtue of this medicine; and Mr. A. Baird, surgeon of the Hector sloop of war, states, that from what he had seen of its effects on board of that ship, he “thinks he shall not be accused of presumption in pronouncing it, if properly administered, a most infallible remedy, both in the cure and prevention of scurvy.” (Vide Trotter’s Medicina Nautica.) The precautions adopted by captain Cook in his celebrated voyages, had fully demonstrated by their complete success the practicability of keeping scurvy under in the longest voyages, but a uniform system of prevention throughout the service was still deficient.

It is to the representations of Dr. Blair and sir Gilbert Blane, in their capacity of commissioners of the board for sick and wounded seamen, in 1795, we believe, that its systematic introduction into nautical diet, by a general order of the admiralty, is owing. The effect of this wise measure (taken, of course, in conjunction with the general causes of improved health,) may be estimated from the following facts:—In 1780, the number of cases of scurvy received into Haslar hospital was 1457; in 1806 one only, and in 1807 one. There are now many surgeons in the navy who have never seen the disease.