James Lind Tests Remedies for Scurvy

In May 1747, during an extended patrol aboard the Royal Navy vessel HMS Salisbury in the Bay of Biscay, surgeon James Lind initiated a trial to evaluate contrasting treatments for scurvy. The debilitating illness regularly incapacitated crews on prolonged ocean voyages and killed large numbers of British seamen. Although earlier observers such as John Woodall and John Fryer had noted the therapeutic qualities of citrus fruits, maritime medical practice lacked structured empirical evidence. Lind selected twelve scorbutic sailors whose symptoms appeared comparable, placed them on the same basic shipboard ration, and divided them into pairs to assess various proposed remedies.

The test subjects received different daily supplements alongside their standard meals. One pair drank a quart of cider, while another took twenty-five drops of elixir of vitriol, a sulfuric acid preparation, three times a day. A third pair consumed six spoonfuls of vinegar, a fourth drank half a pint of seawater, and a fifth received two oranges and one lemon each day. The final pair was prescribed a medicinal paste accompanied by barley water. The supply of fresh citrus was exhausted after six days, but the sailors receiving that ration improved dramatically; one returned to duty, and the other made a substantial recovery. Aside from minor improvements noted in the men drinking cider, the remaining treatments failed to produce meaningful benefits.