ABSTRACT
Thousands of common seamen died of scurvy during long voyages of exploration, in pursuit of colonization, and especially during the naval wars of that time. Finding a cure for scurvy became an urgent effort of those who were committed to the ascendency of the new science and the mechanical body. In a particularly famous case, in 1740, George Anson led a flotilla of six warships with more than 1,900 men on a trip around the horn of South America to capture Lima Peru from the Spanish. The traditional story of how the cure was finally discovered is largely about James Lind, a naval surgeon who performed the first recorded modern controlled trial. The delay in the implementation of Lind's results has been used extensively to illustrate and bemoan the time gap between research results and their application. The scientific research establishment from John Pringle's time to the early twentieth century hindered rather than helped the prevention of scurvy.
