Note 39 — Chapter VI · ANTISCORBUTIC FOODS

It is of interest that John Hall, the son-in-law of Shakespeare, and a prominent physician of Warwickshire, was one of the first to urge the use of antiscorbutics. In a quaint work entitled, “Select Observations on English Bodies, or Cures both Empericall and Historical” (1657 London), he describes how he cured scurvy by means of brewing a beer or ale from “Scorbutick hearbs, viz.: scurvy grass, water-cresses and brook lime.” This book, which ran through at least two editions, has not achieved the popularity of the works of the father-in-law.