Limeys
James Lind's use of citrus fruit was the first clinical trial in medicine.
Key words
- Fatigue: extreme tiredness
She was suffering from fatigue.
- Incidence: the rate at which something happens
There’s been an increased incidence of cancer in the area.
- Wane: to become weaker in strength or influence
By the late 70s the band's popularity was beginning to wane.
- Freedom of conscience: Freedom of conscience encompasses all the ethics and values that a person holds dear, whether religious or not.
Democracy requires freedom of conscience and freedom from coercion.
- Posthumously: connected with human activity at sea
Visit the maritime museum if you're interested in anything to do with ships.
Read to find the answers
- What is scurvy?
- Whose experiments proved that vitamin C prevented scurvy?
- Why do Americans call the British "limeys"?
- When did the United States go to war with Britain?
Scurvy
For sailors on long voyages in the 18th century, disease was often more dangerous than war. A British naval expedition to raid Spanish territory in the Pacific in the 1740's lost 1,300 of its original 2,000 men to scurvy.
Scurvy is a condition caused by a lack of vitamin C, which leads to tissue breakdown due to a lack of collagen. A diet without vitamin C can lead to symptoms within four weeks, with people suffering from fatigue, bleeding, slow-healing wounds and potentially fatal heart problems.