1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:17,920 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy fee Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. This episode 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 1: is the last episode I am writing for the year. 5 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:27,760 Speaker 1: It's been a year. Hooray, Yeah, hooray. Also, I've just 6 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: I've had minimal contact with anybody besides my spouse in 7 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,640 Speaker 1: almost nine months, and for some reason, my brain keeps 8 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:40,840 Speaker 1: being like scurvy and that connection doesn't make sense really, 9 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:45,519 Speaker 1: because if I were to get a vitamin deficiency because 10 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:48,600 Speaker 1: of the pandemic, it would probably be about vitamin D 11 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,440 Speaker 1: from the not going out into the sun. Is that 12 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:54,640 Speaker 1: what you're saying is that your brain is making a 13 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 1: weird jump of concern of vitamin deficiency. Maybe not concerned, 14 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:01,440 Speaker 1: but maybe more like at least they don't have scurvy, 15 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:07,120 Speaker 1: like huh, But brain, that doesn't make any sense anyway. 16 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:09,360 Speaker 1: That's what we're going to talk about today, is scurvy 17 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:12,160 Speaker 1: because just for some weird reason, my brain keeps coming 18 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:16,080 Speaker 1: back around to it in these times of winter and pandemic. 19 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:21,600 Speaker 1: So scurvy, in case you don't know, and you probably do, 20 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 1: is a deficiency in vitamin c or asorbic acid, and 21 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: its story goes way way back in history, all the 22 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: way to our evolutionary ancestors living more than sixty million 23 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:35,760 Speaker 1: years ago, and with a few exceptions including guinea pigs 24 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: and bats, most mammals can generate their own asorbic acid, 25 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: and that included those primate ancestors. But somewhere along the way, 26 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: a random genetic mutation broke the ability to produce an 27 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: enzyme known as l galuno lactone oxidase or GULO, which 28 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 1: is a necessary part of making a sorbic acid. A 29 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 1: sorbic acid is also necessary the body uses it to 30 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: send the size the protein collagen, and collagen is a 31 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,920 Speaker 1: crucially important part of our connective tissue. We needed to 32 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:10,079 Speaker 1: do really important things like hold our skin and blood 33 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:14,680 Speaker 1: vessels together. So if the body cannot replace worn out collagen, 34 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:20,399 Speaker 1: it causes serious problems. The first symptoms of scurvy involve fatigue, lethargy, 35 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: and aching joints. People start to bruise easily, wounds won't heal, 36 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: and old wounds reopen. The gums start to bleed, and 37 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:32,520 Speaker 1: the teeth start to loosen and can in fact come 38 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,919 Speaker 1: out entirely. This is also accompanied by foul odors, including 39 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: very bad breath. Without treatment with vitamin C, scurvy is 40 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: eventually fatal, often because of acute internal bleeding around the 41 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: brain or heart. But when our ancestors stopped being able 42 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:54,240 Speaker 1: to produce gulo, this really did not matter. They were 43 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: living in tropical areas and their diets included lots of 44 00:02:57,560 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: fresh fruits and vegetables, so they were getting ncy of 45 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 1: vitamin C through their food. If this had not been 46 00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: through this genetic mutation that shut off the ability to 47 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: synthesize ghulu would have wiped them out, but since their 48 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: diets were rich with vitamin C, they continued to thrive. 49 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:17,760 Speaker 1: As people started living farther from tropical areas, they started 50 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:20,640 Speaker 1: eating more foods that did not necessarily contain as much 51 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: vitamin C, but most of the time this was still 52 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:27,919 Speaker 1: not a big problem. Most dietary recommendations call for significantly 53 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,080 Speaker 1: more vitamin C, but it doesn't actually take that much 54 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,400 Speaker 1: just to prevent scurvy, only about ten milligrams a day 55 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 1: or all you need, and although vitamin C is mostly 56 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: associated with fruits and vegetables, it is found in other 57 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: foods as well. Most meat contains a little if it 58 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 1: hasn't been cooked too long, and liver and kidney meat 59 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: in particular contained quite a bit of it. So, as 60 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 1: one example, the practice of eating raw organ meat in 61 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: far northern indigenous communities provides protection from scurvy even when 62 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 1: plant based foods are unavailable or out of season. So 63 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 1: as communities established themselves around the world, people had to 64 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: have some kind of vitamin C in their diets, otherwise 65 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:13,560 Speaker 1: that community just could not survive. But anytime that access 66 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: to food was cut off in some way, say because 67 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: of a war or a famine, people could start to 68 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:22,520 Speaker 1: develop scurvy. And this was also true for people with 69 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:25,880 Speaker 1: diseases and conditions that kept them from eating or kept 70 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: them from absorbing the nutrients and their food. And the 71 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:33,440 Speaker 1: word scurvy comes from older terms that mean lazy, scabbed, 72 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:37,559 Speaker 1: or scurf, which used to be used to describe dandruff. 73 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,719 Speaker 1: People started using it to describe this disease in about 74 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: the sixteenth century, but written descriptions of scurvy that predate 75 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:49,200 Speaker 1: that word are much older. The earliest likely description of 76 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:51,719 Speaker 1: scurvy is found in the Egyptian document known as the 77 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:55,160 Speaker 1: Ebers Papyrus, which dates back to about fift b c E. 78 00:04:56,360 --> 00:05:00,359 Speaker 1: Past podcast subject for Shrewda described a condition involving leading 79 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:05,280 Speaker 1: gums and loosening teeth around eight hundred BC. Roughly four 80 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: hundred years later, Greek physician Hippocrates described what was probably scurvy, 81 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:12,800 Speaker 1: and while he did not go into detail about the 82 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:15,600 Speaker 1: cure he knew for it, he did note that it 83 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:20,840 Speaker 1: wasn't effective and that patients usually died. Traditional Chinese medicine 84 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:24,920 Speaker 1: texts described collections of symptoms that very much resemble scurvy 85 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:29,720 Speaker 1: as well. So today scurvy is associated with long sea 86 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 1: voyages and his humanity took to the sea. People worked 87 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,600 Speaker 1: out some ways to prevent it, although really without necessarily 88 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 1: knowing that that was what they were doing. Many of 89 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: the earliest seafarers stuck close to the coasts or the 90 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:46,560 Speaker 1: island hopped, and that gave them plenty of opportunities to 91 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: stock up on fresh food. But his voyages got longer, 92 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:53,240 Speaker 1: many also had foods on board that were rich in 93 00:05:53,360 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: vitamin C. It's possible that Polynesian wayfinders introduced sweet potatoes 94 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,119 Speaker 1: to Central and South America. They would have brought them 95 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:07,080 Speaker 1: with them over thousands of miles of ocean and sweet 96 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 1: potatoes contained vitamin C. Scandinavians stocked their ships with cloud berries, 97 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:15,160 Speaker 1: which have about four times as much vitamin C as 98 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:20,840 Speaker 1: oranges do. Unpasteurized milk also contains vitamin C, so seafarers 99 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: who had dairy animals on board could get it that way. 100 00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:27,440 Speaker 1: While scurvy was common enough to be documented in ancient 101 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: medical literature, one of the first specifically documented outbreaks happened 102 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:36,200 Speaker 1: in the thirteenth century during the Eighth Crusade, King Louis 103 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: the ninth lay siege to Tunis. Although there were plenty 104 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: of fresh fruits and vegetables available in the area, the 105 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:45,720 Speaker 1: king and his fighting force were mostly eating fish, and 106 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: many were also undertaking religious fasts. The king and about 107 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:53,599 Speaker 1: a sixth of his men died of disease during the siege. 108 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:56,480 Speaker 1: For a long time, their deaths were attributed to plague, 109 00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:59,760 Speaker 1: but more recent research has found evidence of scurvy in 110 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: the king's jawbone. Not long after this, scurvy started to 111 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:08,359 Speaker 1: become a serious problem on European ships during long sea voyages, 112 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:12,480 Speaker 1: and most of the literature that's related to scurvy in 113 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:16,840 Speaker 1: history today is focused primarily on Europe and its colonies, 114 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: mostly during the Age of Exploration, which was from about 115 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:23,520 Speaker 1: the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries. But of course Europeans 116 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 1: were not the only people taking to the sea at 117 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:29,680 Speaker 1: this point. It's possible that other nations aren't as represented 118 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:33,800 Speaker 1: in English language literature because of language barriers or prejudice, 119 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:36,840 Speaker 1: but it's also possible that scurvy was just not as 120 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:40,760 Speaker 1: much of a problem outside of European fleets. Most of 121 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: the time, it takes between two months and twelve weeks 122 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: without vitamin C for a person to develop scurvy, and 123 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 1: while sailors from parts of Africa and Asia were taking 124 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:54,400 Speaker 1: voyages that lasted much longer than that, overall, often they 125 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:58,360 Speaker 1: were not going that long between stops to resupply. It 126 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: also seems like they may have been doing a better 127 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 1: job at providing their crews with foods rich in vitamin C. 128 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: Past podcast subject Ibn Batuta, who was from what's now 129 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:12,080 Speaker 1: Morocco and traveled extensively during the fourteenth century, described green 130 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: vegetables and ginger being grown in tanks on Chinese vessels. 131 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: He also wrote about salted ginger, pepper, lemons, and mangoes 132 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,800 Speaker 1: being loaded onto ships in preparation for long voyages. Another 133 00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:29,400 Speaker 1: previous podcast subject is Jungha, who led fleets of treasure 134 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:31,800 Speaker 1: ships from China all the way to Africa in the 135 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: fifteenth century, and we don't have lists of exactly what 136 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:38,320 Speaker 1: provisions he took, but we do know that his fleets 137 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 1: included huge supply vessels whose whole purpose was sustaining the 138 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,880 Speaker 1: voyage itself, and that the ships had kitchens that prepared 139 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 1: meals for crews and passengers. There are also multiple references 140 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 1: to Tea in relation to his voyages, and t does 141 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:58,040 Speaker 1: contain some vitamin C. For the most part, written records 142 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:01,640 Speaker 1: of scurvy on Chinese vessel don't really start until the 143 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:05,800 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, when people left China bound for California during 144 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:10,400 Speaker 1: the Gold Rush. But European ships were another story. Especially 145 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:14,400 Speaker 1: as European ships crossed whole oceans. People's diets were often 146 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:19,079 Speaker 1: restricted to salted meat and hardtack and not much else. Typically, 147 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:24,439 Speaker 1: any vegetables grown on board were only for the officers. Consequently, 148 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: it's estimated that scurvy killed two million European sailors between 149 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:33,080 Speaker 1: the fifteenth century and the nineteenth century, which is when 150 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: navies started to more consistently connect scurvy prevention to things 151 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:41,319 Speaker 1: like citrus juice. During these centuries, scurvy was the leading 152 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:45,040 Speaker 1: cause of death amongst sailors at sea. It was also 153 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,440 Speaker 1: a major cause of death among enslaved Africans during the 154 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:52,800 Speaker 1: Transatlantic slave trade, although the details of that aspect have 155 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:57,480 Speaker 1: not been nearly as specifically documented as with ship's crews. 156 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:00,920 Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about some more specific scurvy 157 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:12,319 Speaker 1: information after we first paused for a little sponsor break. Today, 158 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:17,600 Speaker 1: scurvy is treated almost like a punchline in pirate jokes, 159 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:21,440 Speaker 1: but it was an enormous problem for hundreds of years. 160 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,160 Speaker 1: Scurvy killed a hundred of the original hundred and seventy 161 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:29,679 Speaker 1: crew during Vasco da Gama's voyage to the Indian subcontinent 162 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:34,440 Speaker 1: that started in fourte for Nan Magellan left Spain with 163 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:38,120 Speaker 1: a fleet of five ships in fifteen nineteen, searching for 164 00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:41,080 Speaker 1: a way to reach Asia from Europe by traveling west 165 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 1: by sea. Only eighteen of his original crew of two 166 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 1: hundred and seventy made it back to Spain in two 167 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:52,959 Speaker 1: with scurvy being a major cause of death. Here is 168 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:57,240 Speaker 1: how one of Magellan's crew described conditions in his journal quote, 169 00:10:57,679 --> 00:11:00,800 Speaker 1: we ain't only old biscuit, reduced to outer and full 170 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:03,680 Speaker 1: of grubs and stinking from the dirt which the rats 171 00:11:03,679 --> 00:11:06,320 Speaker 1: had made on it when eating the good biscuit, And 172 00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:09,600 Speaker 1: we drank water that was yellow and stinking. The men 173 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:12,200 Speaker 1: were so hungry that if any of them caught a rat, 174 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:14,679 Speaker 1: he could sell it for a high price to someone 175 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 1: who would eat it. In fifteen thirty five, French explorer 176 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,480 Speaker 1: Jacques Cartier established a fort across the St. Charles River 177 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:26,320 Speaker 1: from the Iroquois village of Staticona that's near what's now 178 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: Quebec City. That winter was extremely harsh. Cardier's ships became 179 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,160 Speaker 1: ice bound. They were not able to return to France's 180 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:38,000 Speaker 1: planned and when they heard of an illness that was 181 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,800 Speaker 1: spreading through the indigenous population, they tried to cut off 182 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:44,040 Speaker 1: contact with them, But then that same illness started to 183 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: spread through Cardier's own men. In an account translated by 184 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:52,160 Speaker 1: Richard Hacklett, it's described as this quote. Some did lose 185 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: their strength and could not stand on their feet. Then 186 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 1: did their legs swell, their sinews shrink as black as 187 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:02,440 Speaker 1: any coal. Others also had all their skins spotted with 188 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:06,000 Speaker 1: spots of blood of a purple color. Then did ascend 189 00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:09,640 Speaker 1: up to their ankles, knees, thighs, shoulders, arms, and neck. 190 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: Their mouth became stinking, their gums so rotten that all 191 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:16,600 Speaker 1: the flesh did fall off, even to the roots of 192 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:20,400 Speaker 1: the teeth, which also all fall out. About the middle 193 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: of February, of a hundreds and ten persons that we were, 194 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:27,199 Speaker 1: there were not ten whole. There were already eight dead, 195 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:29,640 Speaker 1: and more than fifty six, and as we saw it 196 00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:33,960 Speaker 1: passed all hope of recovery. So at some point Cardier 197 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:37,680 Speaker 1: went for a walk and encountered Domagaya, who was the 198 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:40,880 Speaker 1: son of Don Kona, who was the chief of Staticona. 199 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:45,120 Speaker 1: Domagaya to hold Cardier about a treatment for this disease, 200 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:47,600 Speaker 1: which was to prepare a tea from the leaves of 201 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:51,959 Speaker 1: a local tree. This tree is not conclusively identified today, 202 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,079 Speaker 1: but the most likely candidate is the eastern white cedar, 203 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,560 Speaker 1: whose leaves always contained some vitamin cy but have a 204 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 1: whole lot more of it in the new growth that 205 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:04,760 Speaker 1: comes out in the early spring. Although at least twenty 206 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 1: five men in the fort died of scurvy, this cure 207 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,920 Speaker 1: was effective for the ones who survived. There is a course, 208 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:14,360 Speaker 1: of course, a whole lot more to this story outside 209 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:18,960 Speaker 1: the part about scurvy, Cartier had actually abducted Domagaya and 210 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:21,600 Speaker 1: his brother on his earlier voyage and forced them to 211 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:24,720 Speaker 1: accompany him back to France, bringing them back to North 212 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,599 Speaker 1: America with him in fifteen thirty five, and at the 213 00:13:27,679 --> 00:13:30,440 Speaker 1: end of his second voyage, Cartier abducted them for a 214 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:34,640 Speaker 1: second time, along with their father and seven other indigenous people. 215 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:38,040 Speaker 1: All but one of them died before Cardier returned to 216 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:42,679 Speaker 1: North America for his third voyage. In Probably the most 217 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:46,800 Speaker 1: dramatic and notorious outbreak of scurvy at sea was during 218 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:50,480 Speaker 1: George Anson's four year voyage around the world, which started 219 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:54,920 Speaker 1: in seventeen forty. Britain was at war with Spain, and 220 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: because of the war, Anson had a serious labor shortage. 221 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:01,559 Speaker 1: Even press gangs, who were abducting men off the street 222 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:04,160 Speaker 1: to force them to serve in the Royal Navy could 223 00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:08,040 Speaker 1: not provide him with enough men for his fleet. Eventually, 224 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,880 Speaker 1: this gap was filled with men from Chelsea Hospital, most 225 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:15,200 Speaker 1: of whom were sick, injured, or elderly to the point 226 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 1: that they weren't able to just leave on their own 227 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:21,160 Speaker 1: when they got released from the hospital. The people who 228 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: did have the capacity to just walk away did that, 229 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,520 Speaker 1: so he was left with like the oldest, sickest men 230 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 1: from the hospital. And then there were delays in outfitting 231 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:36,040 Speaker 1: the ships, and the crews ate nothing but ships rations 232 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,360 Speaker 1: for months as they waited, And while there were treatments 233 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:42,640 Speaker 1: for scurvy on board, none of them contained much, if any, 234 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:46,080 Speaker 1: vitamin C, so they did not actually work for the 235 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:49,120 Speaker 1: most part. They were also really unpleasant, like drinking a 236 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:53,720 Speaker 1: bunch of straight vinegar. I like vinegar and vinegary things, 237 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:55,840 Speaker 1: but the idea of just gulping down a whole bunch 238 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:59,200 Speaker 1: of it does not sound great to me. Hard pass. 239 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:04,359 Speaker 1: Once they finally got underway, they sailed through terrible storms 240 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:08,120 Speaker 1: and were blown off course by April of seventeen forty one. 241 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:11,240 Speaker 1: Most of the men who had survived those treacherous seas 242 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: had then developed scurvy. By June, they were down from 243 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:18,360 Speaker 1: six ships to only three, with only three hundred thirty 244 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:23,400 Speaker 1: five survivors out of about thirteen hundred original crew. Finally 245 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:26,960 Speaker 1: they reached the one Fernandez Islands off the coast of Chile. 246 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:30,800 Speaker 1: These were home to plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, 247 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:33,480 Speaker 1: and as the ships took on fresh provisions and the 248 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:37,720 Speaker 1: men ate these foods, they gradually began to recover, but 249 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:40,880 Speaker 1: because their conditions were so dire, when they started getting 250 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:43,760 Speaker 1: more vitamin C into their bodies, it actually took more 251 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:47,720 Speaker 1: than a month before men stopped dying of scurvy. Anson's 252 00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:51,840 Speaker 1: dwindling fleet was struck by scurvy again in the Pacific 253 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:55,520 Speaker 1: Ocean in the summer of seventeen forty two, obviously after 254 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:57,640 Speaker 1: they had run out of the fresh provisions that they 255 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:01,360 Speaker 1: brought on board. When his two mating ships finally got 256 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,760 Speaker 1: to China, there were only two hundred and twenty seven 257 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:08,280 Speaker 1: of the original crew still living. In spite of that, 258 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:11,320 Speaker 1: they managed to capture a Spanish galleon that was bound 259 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:15,720 Speaker 1: for Manila on June seventeen forty three, and then with 260 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:18,960 Speaker 1: the holy a hundred and forty five of the original men, 261 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:22,360 Speaker 1: they made it back to Britain. Because they had captured 262 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,880 Speaker 1: the Spanish galleon, they were treated as heroes, with treasures 263 00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:29,320 Speaker 1: from the galleon paraded through the streets of London, and 264 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:33,600 Speaker 1: Anson named First Lord of the Admiralty in seventeen fifty one. 265 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:37,040 Speaker 1: At this point, I mean it might seem a little 266 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:39,120 Speaker 1: weird for the person who was in charge when all 267 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,360 Speaker 1: of these people died, so then become the first Lord 268 00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:46,000 Speaker 1: of the Admiralty. But at this point, European naval officials 269 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: had long seen scurvy as an almost inevitable side effect 270 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: of sending men out to sea for long periods, and 271 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:55,600 Speaker 1: they really did not know what was going on with 272 00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:58,800 Speaker 1: this disease. They did not know about vitamin C or 273 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: about vitamins at all. It would be more than a 274 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:05,400 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty more years before Casimir Funk would coin 275 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:09,639 Speaker 1: the word vitamine to describe specific chemical substances that the 276 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:14,040 Speaker 1: body needed to survive. They did not know about collagen either. 277 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,480 Speaker 1: The molecular structure of collagen was not discovered until the 278 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:22,639 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties. Complicating all of this, Diets that lacked vitamin 279 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:26,720 Speaker 1: C often lacked other essential nutrients as well, and outbreaks 280 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:31,560 Speaker 1: of scurvy frequently happened alongside outbreaks of contagious diseases, so 281 00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 1: it wasn't always clear exactly what disease was at work, 282 00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:38,960 Speaker 1: and often multiple conditions were getting lumped together and described 283 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: as scurvy. So over the centuries, various people noticed that 284 00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: an assortment of foods seemed to cure scurvy. Sometimes they 285 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:51,119 Speaker 1: did put that discovery in writing, but it took a 286 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:56,040 Speaker 1: really long time before navies started consistently keeping effective treatments 287 00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:58,960 Speaker 1: for it on ships. This was not just a matter 288 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,960 Speaker 1: of people forgeting that citrus fruits cured scurvy, though it 289 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: is definitely described that way sometimes, like people kind of 290 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,880 Speaker 1: frame it as people in the past we're great, big 291 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:13,200 Speaker 1: dummies who just kept forgetting that all that needed was oranges. 292 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,679 Speaker 1: In hindsight, it is really easy to see that the 293 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:21,680 Speaker 1: things that treated scurvy effectively all have vitamin C in them. 294 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,199 Speaker 1: But at the time, not only did people not know 295 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:27,600 Speaker 1: why any of those things actually worked, but their explanations 296 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:31,719 Speaker 1: for why they worked we're totally off base. So as 297 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,400 Speaker 1: people try to come up with carriers that were easier 298 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:37,720 Speaker 1: to keep fresh on ships than fruits and vegetables are, 299 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:41,480 Speaker 1: they just kept going down the completely wrong track. Often 300 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:44,120 Speaker 1: James Lynde is the one who gets credit for solving 301 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:47,639 Speaker 1: the scurvy problem, but it's of course history, so that 302 00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:50,280 Speaker 1: means it's way more complicated than that, And we're going 303 00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:52,159 Speaker 1: to get into all of that after we pause for 304 00:18:52,160 --> 00:19:03,360 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. For hundreds of years medicine in Europe 305 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:07,040 Speaker 1: rested on the idea of humors, and this drew from 306 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:11,720 Speaker 1: Greek physicians and philosophers like Galen and Hippocrates. It also 307 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:16,560 Speaker 1: appears in the work of Persian polymath even Sina. Similar 308 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,840 Speaker 1: concepts are part of traditional Chinese medicine and agur Veda 309 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:23,440 Speaker 1: as well. And in terms of the understanding of scurvy 310 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,960 Speaker 1: and much of Europe, for hundreds of years, it was 311 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:31,399 Speaker 1: believed to be due to putrefaction of the humors, and 312 00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:34,160 Speaker 1: then that puture faction was made worse by bad food, 313 00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:38,760 Speaker 1: bad air, bad hygiene, or sometimes just laziness, and there 314 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:41,359 Speaker 1: were a lot of people who figured out something that 315 00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 1: worked to treat this. In fifteen seventy four, bal duenas 316 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:49,200 Speaker 1: ron Cius wrote about oranges curing scurvy in Dutch sailors. 317 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:53,200 Speaker 1: In the late sixteenth century, and Rick Oyer wrote about 318 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 1: cloud berries treating scurvy in Norse sailors. In sixteen seventeen, 319 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:02,879 Speaker 1: John wood All published a reference book called The Surgeon's Mate, 320 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:08,480 Speaker 1: or Military and Domestic Surgery Discovering Faithfully and Plainly Ye 321 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:12,720 Speaker 1: method an Order of Ye Surgeon's Chest. Ye uses of 322 00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:16,600 Speaker 1: the instruments, the virtues and operations of the medicines, with 323 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:20,720 Speaker 1: the exact cures of wounds made by gunshot and otherwise 324 00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:26,960 Speaker 1: as namely wounds, appost fumes, ulcers, fistulas, fractures, dislocations with 325 00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:31,399 Speaker 1: the most easy and safest ways of amputation or dismembering. 326 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:35,800 Speaker 1: The cures of the scurvy of you, fluxes of you, 327 00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 1: belly of eucolic and iliaca, Passio of ten Assimus and 328 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 1: Exodus Ainta, and of the calend Tour, with a Treatise 329 00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:49,000 Speaker 1: of ye Cure of ye plague, published for the service 330 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:52,359 Speaker 1: of His Master and of the Commonwealth by John would All, Mr. 331 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:56,320 Speaker 1: In Surgery. As that very long title mentioned, it had 332 00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:00,720 Speaker 1: an entire section on scurvy and its treatment. I think 333 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,960 Speaker 1: we should bring back the days where we basically include 334 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:08,200 Speaker 1: the index in the title. Yeah. Well, I looked at 335 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:11,480 Speaker 1: the table of contents for it, and at one point 336 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 1: I had the table of contents for what the section 337 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:16,560 Speaker 1: of on scurvy included in here. But it was really 338 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: just like scurvy, it's description its treatment. Yeah. What All's 339 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,320 Speaker 1: descriptions of scurvy are similar to what we talked about 340 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:26,760 Speaker 1: earlier in the show. And as for its cure, he 341 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: wrote the quote as a famous writer named Johannes Ectius, 342 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:34,840 Speaker 1: in a treatise Discorbuto, affirms consistent chiefly in four things, 343 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:41,000 Speaker 1: namely in opening obstructions, evacuating the offending humors, in altering 344 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:44,560 Speaker 1: the property of them, and in comforting and corroborating the 345 00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:48,720 Speaker 1: parts late diseased. What all stresses the need to keep 346 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:52,160 Speaker 1: the cruise quarters clean and sweet, with as much high 347 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:56,360 Speaker 1: quality comfortable food as possible. But if someone does get scurvy, 348 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:59,520 Speaker 1: they should be bled and given some quote, pills of 349 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:05,119 Speaker 1: youth fourbium or otherwise pibula, ruffie or cambosia. And then 350 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:09,040 Speaker 1: after that some spoon meat, or some oatmeal or egg yolk, 351 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:12,000 Speaker 1: or a broth of currants and other fruit, or some 352 00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:16,080 Speaker 1: sugar or spices, or some barley water, or some oil 353 00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:20,280 Speaker 1: of vitriol which is sulfuric acid, or putting some dried 354 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:24,600 Speaker 1: wormwood in the patient's drink. And then quote further, the 355 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:28,040 Speaker 1: surgeon or his mate must not fail to persuade the 356 00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:31,040 Speaker 1: governor or purser in all places where they touched in 357 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,240 Speaker 1: the ndies, and may have it to provide themselves of 358 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:39,320 Speaker 1: juice of oranges, limes or lemons, and at Bantham of tamarinds. 359 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:43,280 Speaker 1: In the Surgeon's mate, Wood all makes lots of references 360 00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:46,679 Speaker 1: to citrus fruit, but he's really focused on when cruiser 361 00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:49,680 Speaker 1: in places where those fruits grow, because quote, the sea 362 00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 1: surgeon shall do little good at sea with them, neither 363 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,880 Speaker 1: will they endure. Yeah, he had stuff about citrus fruit 364 00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:58,600 Speaker 1: in here, but it was really about when they were 365 00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:00,680 Speaker 1: on land. And he also included and so many other 366 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:05,280 Speaker 1: things that would not have been effective at all. Oil 367 00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:08,320 Speaker 1: of vitriol was a very common scurvy treatment. It was 368 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:12,359 Speaker 1: literally sulfuric acid. It was that was not helpful. In 369 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:16,679 Speaker 1: sixteen twenty two, Sir Richard Hawkins, who called scurvy quote 370 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:19,600 Speaker 1: the plague of the sea and the spoil of mariners, 371 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:24,119 Speaker 1: wrote that sour lemons and oranges could treat it. In 372 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:29,639 Speaker 1: sixty five, Ambrosius Rhodius defended and published the first Scandinavian 373 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,800 Speaker 1: doctoral thesis, and it was on scurvy. It described treating 374 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:38,560 Speaker 1: scurvy with scurvy grass, common chick weed, watercress, mustard plants, 375 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,000 Speaker 1: and the cloud berries that we mentioned earlier on in 376 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:45,720 Speaker 1: the show. Ambrosius Rhodius did seem to understand that scurvy 377 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:49,240 Speaker 1: was connected to nutrition, but his ideas on how that 378 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,320 Speaker 1: worked were a little bit fuzzy. It was connected to 379 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: the idea of canceling out opposites shower. By the late 380 00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:01,000 Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds, people were using the word anti scorbutic to 381 00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:05,560 Speaker 1: describe things they believed to be useful against scurvy. Dutch 382 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,240 Speaker 1: physician Johannes bach Schram used the term to describe fresh 383 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:13,320 Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables in seventeen thirty four. Also in the 384 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,359 Speaker 1: eighteenth century, Baron Gerhard von Swieten talked about scarcity of 385 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,320 Speaker 1: greens and vegetables as contributing to scurvy, but he also 386 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,639 Speaker 1: attributed it to quote noisome vapors arising from marshy grounds 387 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:30,920 Speaker 1: and stagnating waters, in action, drinking of corrupted and stagnating waters, 388 00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:34,960 Speaker 1: the use of salted and smoked flesh and fish, damp 389 00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:39,840 Speaker 1: and low lodgings, as well as sorrow, nostalgia and homesickness. 390 00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:45,800 Speaker 1: According to von Sweeten, treatment for scurvy involved quote, correcting 391 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:50,440 Speaker 1: the impure waters and also purging. He also made dietary 392 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:56,320 Speaker 1: recommendations quote the food should be broth with sheervil sorrel spinage, lettuce, 393 00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:01,639 Speaker 1: andy suckery, cabbage, especially red cat abbage, young nettle, buds 394 00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:05,919 Speaker 1: and tops, or any other sort of tender herbage boiled 395 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,960 Speaker 1: in it. The preference to be given to those easiest 396 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:13,320 Speaker 1: to come at. Fruit quite ripe, used moderately always produces 397 00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 1: a good effect. But if neither fruit nor greens can 398 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:19,760 Speaker 1: be procured, the patient must have his broth with barley, 399 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:23,080 Speaker 1: oats or rice. He may eat likewise a little veal 400 00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:27,200 Speaker 1: or foul, but it must be moderately. So A lot 401 00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:31,439 Speaker 1: of people had noted fresh fruits and vegetables, including citrus fruits, 402 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:34,800 Speaker 1: as a treatment for scurvy by the time James Lynde 403 00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,560 Speaker 1: had entered the British Royal Navy as a surgeon's mate 404 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:41,040 Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty nine. He became a full surgeon in 405 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:44,280 Speaker 1: seventeen forty six, and he was aboard the HMS Salisbury 406 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:48,080 Speaker 1: in seventeen forty seven when there was an outbreak of scurvy. 407 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,320 Speaker 1: Lend did an experiment which is sometimes described as the 408 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:57,200 Speaker 1: world's first controlled clinical trial. He selected twelve sailors, all 409 00:25:57,280 --> 00:25:59,800 Speaker 1: of whom had scurvy that he described as being at 410 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:03,160 Speaker 1: a similar point of progression, and he paired them up, 411 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,200 Speaker 1: and he gave each pair a different treatment over the 412 00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:10,240 Speaker 1: course of two weeks. These were treatments that already existed 413 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 1: for scurvy, except for seawater, which was apparently more of 414 00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:18,560 Speaker 1: a placebo. Don't drink seawater. It's not a good plan. 415 00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:23,080 Speaker 1: But these these pairs were each given a quart of 416 00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,800 Speaker 1: cider per day, twenty five drops of a lixir of 417 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:30,640 Speaker 1: vitriol three times a day, half a pint of seawater 418 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:36,399 Speaker 1: a day, a nutmeg sized paste of garlic, mustard seed, 419 00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:40,680 Speaker 1: horse radish, balsam of peru and gummer three times a day, 420 00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:46,000 Speaker 1: two spoonfuls of vinegar three times a day, or two 421 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,719 Speaker 1: oranges and one lemon each day. I mean, I might 422 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,360 Speaker 1: opt for the nutmegs size paste of garlic, but that's 423 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:56,160 Speaker 1: just me. I mean I kind of do that. Anyway. 424 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,600 Speaker 1: The men who were even cider improved somewhat because of 425 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:04,680 Speaker 1: the way cider was made at the time, it probably 426 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,240 Speaker 1: did have some vitamin C in it. But the two 427 00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:10,800 Speaker 1: men who got oranges and lemons improved so dramatically that 428 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: they were determined to be well after six days, and 429 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:16,240 Speaker 1: from that point they actually helped take care of the 430 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:20,480 Speaker 1: others while he was writing about this lend reference to 431 00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:24,840 Speaker 1: bile duenas Rosius writing about oranges curing Dutch sailors from 432 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,680 Speaker 1: like two hundred years before, and he said, quote here 433 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:31,359 Speaker 1: indeed is a remarkable and authentic proof of the great 434 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:35,480 Speaker 1: efficacy of juice of lemons against this disease. But these 435 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:39,159 Speaker 1: fruits have this particular advantage above any theory that can 436 00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:43,240 Speaker 1: be prepared for trial, that they're experienced virtues have stood 437 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,920 Speaker 1: the test of near two hundred years. Lynde left the 438 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: Navy in seventeen. In seventeen fifty three, he wrote a 439 00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:55,000 Speaker 1: treatise of the Scurvy, containing an inquiry into the nature, causes, 440 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,040 Speaker 1: and cure of that disease, together with a critical and 441 00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:01,120 Speaker 1: chronological view of what has been blished on the subject. 442 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,800 Speaker 1: And while this did include the sentence quote oranges and 443 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,320 Speaker 1: lemons were the most effectual remedies for this distemperate sea, 444 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:11,920 Speaker 1: that was only one tiny part of a four hundred 445 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:14,399 Speaker 1: page work that talked about a lot of other stuff 446 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,840 Speaker 1: related to scurvy. For example, he did not think there 447 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:21,080 Speaker 1: was a direct cause and effect relationship between the fruit 448 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:24,439 Speaker 1: and the scurvy. He actually thought scurvy was a digestive 449 00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:27,680 Speaker 1: disease that was caused by blocked sweat glands, and that 450 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:31,160 Speaker 1: the fruit and to a lesser extent, the cider, we're 451 00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,800 Speaker 1: all clearing those blockages. And he also thought that other 452 00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:39,800 Speaker 1: blockage clearing substances could potentially have the same effect. Lynde 453 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 1: also recognized that you cannot really just keep citrus fruits 454 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,240 Speaker 1: fresh on a ship for a lengthy sea voyage, so 455 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:52,000 Speaker 1: he recommended concentrating the juice into a rob, but because 456 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:55,120 Speaker 1: of the way that ROB was concentrated, the end result 457 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 1: would not have actually contained much vitamin sea at all. 458 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:05,000 Speaker 1: I'm I'm thinking of people who drink orange flavored drink 459 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:07,520 Speaker 1: and make jokes about not getting scurvy, and I'm like, 460 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:12,240 Speaker 1: there's not really much orange. Yeah. Over the next decades, 461 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,960 Speaker 1: other people writing about citrus fruits and scurvy attributed their 462 00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,800 Speaker 1: effectiveness to their being a stimulant, or because they were 463 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,720 Speaker 1: full of a vital air that was leaching out of 464 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:27,720 Speaker 1: sailor's bodies at sea. Irish Dr David McBride tested malt wort, 465 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:31,600 Speaker 1: which he believed provided fixed air as a scurvy treatment, 466 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,400 Speaker 1: although his results were clouded by the fact that he 467 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:38,840 Speaker 1: also gave some of his patients citrus fruit. Another person 468 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,840 Speaker 1: who claimed to conquer scurvy was Captain James Cook, and 469 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,600 Speaker 1: although there were some scurvy outbreaks on his voyages, there 470 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:51,400 Speaker 1: weren't any deaths because of it. His preferred scurvy preventives 471 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,720 Speaker 1: were portable soup which was basically bully on powder, which 472 00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,800 Speaker 1: I am calling portable soup from now on, as well 473 00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,360 Speaker 1: as malt and so kraut, and of those three things 474 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: only the sauer kraut would have contained much vitamin C 475 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: as long as they were eating it raw. He also 476 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:13,000 Speaker 1: insisted on bringing fresh provisions onto the ship at every 477 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,640 Speaker 1: possible stop, which would have kept them supplied more with 478 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,680 Speaker 1: fresh fruits and vegetables, and he also insisted on keeping 479 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,520 Speaker 1: the ship really clean, which would have helped slow the 480 00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:27,360 Speaker 1: spread of communicable diseases. Finally, after hundreds of years of 481 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,520 Speaker 1: various people suggesting that citrus might play some part in 482 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:36,120 Speaker 1: curing scurvy, in sevent Gilbert Blaine got the British Royal 483 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:40,200 Speaker 1: Navy to issue lemon juice to every sailor. This worked 484 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:43,640 Speaker 1: to Britain's advantage during the Napoleonic Wars, and during the 485 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:48,160 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, more and more European explorers and naval officials 486 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,600 Speaker 1: started stressing the need for lemon or lime juice, or 487 00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:56,240 Speaker 1: for some kind of fresh vegetables on board. In one, 488 00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:00,360 Speaker 1: William Perry's expedition to the Arctic took quote a shallow 489 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,160 Speaker 1: tray filled with mold on which to grow mustard and cress, 490 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,840 Speaker 1: and their parties only death from scurvy was an officer 491 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,680 Speaker 1: who refused to eat them. Sir John Franklin's expedition in 492 00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,840 Speaker 1: eighteen forty five kept scurvy at bay for twenty seven 493 00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:18,960 Speaker 1: months with lemon juice, with scurvy outbreaks beginning only after 494 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,680 Speaker 1: that supply of lemon juice ran out. For the most part, 495 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 1: the British Navy had started out using lemon juice made 496 00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:29,960 Speaker 1: from lemons from the Mediterranean to prevent scurvy. In the 497 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:33,600 Speaker 1: mid nineteenth century, they instead started using limes from the 498 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,560 Speaker 1: Caribbean islands of Montserra and Bermuda. Part of the rash 499 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,560 Speaker 1: now here was the idea that lime juice was more 500 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,880 Speaker 1: acidic and would thus be more effective at clearing out 501 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,320 Speaker 1: purported blackages. There was also because Britain had claimed those 502 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:51,920 Speaker 1: islands as territories, so there was they could get things 503 00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:54,840 Speaker 1: from them that was a free asset to them in 504 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,320 Speaker 1: their minds. For to them is the very very important 505 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:02,280 Speaker 1: part of that phrasing. But scurvy outbreaks kept happening in 506 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:06,960 Speaker 1: other places besides European navies. Scurvy was a problem during 507 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,200 Speaker 1: the Great Famine that started in Ireland in eighteen forty five, 508 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:14,080 Speaker 1: which would later lead people to incorrectly conclude that it 509 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:19,000 Speaker 1: was connected to potassium deficiency. When pasteurization was introduced in 510 00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:22,720 Speaker 1: the late nineteenth century, there was an outbreak of scurvy 511 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,840 Speaker 1: in babies whose families were wealthy enough to be feeding 512 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:30,280 Speaker 1: them pasteurized milk. In the early twentieth century, researchers at 513 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 1: the Lister Institute in London realized that guinea pigs could 514 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,840 Speaker 1: develop a condition that seemed identical to scurvey. As we 515 00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:40,960 Speaker 1: mentioned up at the top of the show, guinea pigs 516 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:45,320 Speaker 1: also cannot synthesize their own vitamin c axel Holst and 517 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:48,920 Speaker 1: Theodore Frolick discovered that if the guinea pigs were fed 518 00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,840 Speaker 1: only grains, they became ill, but then if they were 519 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:55,720 Speaker 1: given cabbage or lemon juice, they got better. They published 520 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:58,600 Speaker 1: their work on this in nineteen oh seven and then 521 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,440 Speaker 1: five years later and nine team twelve was when Casimir 522 00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:06,000 Speaker 1: Funk coined the term vitamine, which later morphed into vitamin. 523 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,120 Speaker 1: At this point, the Lister Institute was doing a lot 524 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:13,120 Speaker 1: of research into nutritional deficiencies, with many of the researchers 525 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:17,640 Speaker 1: being women. At the institute, Harriet Chick and Margaret Hume 526 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:21,520 Speaker 1: started identifying more and more foods that had anti score 527 00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:27,360 Speaker 1: butic properties, including cabbage, onions, carrots, fruit juices, and potatoes. 528 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:32,360 Speaker 1: Alice Henderson Smith also researched exactly which fruits had historically 529 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:36,680 Speaker 1: been used in British Navy treatments and their efficacy. By 530 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:40,040 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, it was clear that scurvy was a 531 00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:44,560 Speaker 1: deficiency and a specific nutrient, but nobody had been able 532 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:49,560 Speaker 1: to isolate the nutrient itself. Then, in night, Albert sent 533 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:55,200 Speaker 1: Jorgie isolated a compound in paprika that he named hexauronic acid, 534 00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,040 Speaker 1: but it was later renamed a scorbic acid because of 535 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,920 Speaker 1: its whole anti score butic effect. In ninety seven, he 536 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:05,240 Speaker 1: was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine quote 537 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:09,359 Speaker 1: for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes 538 00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:13,320 Speaker 1: with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of 539 00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:17,400 Speaker 1: fumaric acid. Today, it is of course common knowledge that 540 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:21,000 Speaker 1: vitamin C prevents scurvy, but it can still develop any 541 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:25,319 Speaker 1: time people cannot get enough vitamin C. Yeah, it's uh. 542 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,560 Speaker 1: I read lots of articles about various outbreaks in various 543 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:33,880 Speaker 1: places for everything from like refugee camps where there just 544 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:38,239 Speaker 1: are not adequate provisions, to like fad diets where people 545 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,280 Speaker 1: have tried to cut all fruit out of their diet, 546 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,480 Speaker 1: like just all over the place. Um. And you know, 547 00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:46,959 Speaker 1: as we said at the top of the show, people 548 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:51,960 Speaker 1: who have, whether it's a physiological condition or a psychological conditions, 549 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:54,480 Speaker 1: who either aren't able to eat or aren't able to 550 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,040 Speaker 1: absorb nutrients from their food. Lots of cases still happen today. 551 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:00,200 Speaker 1: Do you also have a little bit of list sner 552 00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:03,080 Speaker 1: mail that may or may not contain vitamin C? I 553 00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:05,840 Speaker 1: do have some listener mail. The first one is actually 554 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:10,160 Speaker 1: super super quick a listener tweet. UM. In the episode 555 00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:13,239 Speaker 1: on Vivian Thomas, I had said I was not sure 556 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:17,160 Speaker 1: why he was given an honorary doctorate of laws instead 557 00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:22,600 Speaker 1: of an honorary medical doctorate, and we got a tweet 558 00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,239 Speaker 1: from Randy who said the m D degree is never 559 00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:28,160 Speaker 1: given an honorary status, as it confers the ability to 560 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,879 Speaker 1: apply for a medical license, doctor of laws, of doctor 561 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,400 Speaker 1: of humane letters may be given in its place, depending 562 00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:37,319 Speaker 1: on the institution. Uh. That is a thing that had 563 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,080 Speaker 1: occurred to me as the possible reason when I was researching. 564 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:43,040 Speaker 1: But then I saw that there were people who had 565 00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:47,480 Speaker 1: gotten honorary m d s, and it occurred to me 566 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:51,080 Speaker 1: only after reading Randy's tweet that those people were probably 567 00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:58,040 Speaker 1: already doctors because it has been a very long year. Right. 568 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:04,480 Speaker 1: I also got uh an email from Dustin who wrote 569 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:09,320 Speaker 1: in after our episodes on Jim thorpe Um to talk 570 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:15,080 Speaker 1: about the amateur athlete requirements in the Olympics, and so 571 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,680 Speaker 1: Dustin wrote, Holly and Tracy, I want to start by 572 00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:19,600 Speaker 1: saying that although I have not been listening to your 573 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:22,600 Speaker 1: podcast for long, I absolutely love it. Recover a wide 574 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:25,640 Speaker 1: variety of interesting people from so many different fields of interest, 575 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,920 Speaker 1: and you always have interesting commentary as you narrate us 576 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,440 Speaker 1: through these lives. I appreciate your research and the details 577 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:34,399 Speaker 1: you bring in from different biographies or other sources. While 578 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:37,680 Speaker 1: listening to your first, though perhaps not last, three parter 579 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,279 Speaker 1: on Jim Thorpe. That really had me riveted the whole 580 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:43,720 Speaker 1: way through. I was wondering about when the Olympics changed, 581 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:48,480 Speaker 1: as it clearly now allows professional athletes to compete. Furthermore, 582 00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:50,480 Speaker 1: after some of your other listener mail, I decided to 583 00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:52,200 Speaker 1: poke around myself and share what I found with you. 584 00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:55,640 Speaker 1: So it was not until one that the IOC removed 585 00:36:55,760 --> 00:37:00,360 Speaker 1: the rule requiring amateurism. What's most interesting was it was 586 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,920 Speaker 1: not a result of the de leisurizing of amateur sports 587 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,839 Speaker 1: and the blurring line between the amateur and pro level 588 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,640 Speaker 1: which you spoke about in the podcast. According to what 589 00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:12,680 Speaker 1: I read, it had largely to do with Eastern Bloc 590 00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:16,840 Speaker 1: nations such as the USSR, sponsoring their best pros and 591 00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:20,400 Speaker 1: listing them as soldiers to skirt the rules. Essentially, the 592 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,920 Speaker 1: Soviets cheated and broke the rules of the process. The 593 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:26,400 Speaker 1: next step was the adoption into law of the Amateur 594 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:29,360 Speaker 1: Sports Act of nineteen seventy eight, also known as the 595 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,120 Speaker 1: Ted Stevens Act, named for the U S senator who 596 00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:35,960 Speaker 1: introduced it. This established the US Olympic Committee and allowed 597 00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:39,520 Speaker 1: them to create additional national governing bodies for each sport, 598 00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:42,960 Speaker 1: such as US Figure Skating and the United States Fencing Association. 599 00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:46,400 Speaker 1: These bodies were basically used to select Olympic team members 600 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:50,080 Speaker 1: and govern the amateur competitions in these sports. Fun side note, 601 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:53,399 Speaker 1: the Act requires these MGB committees to be at least 602 00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:58,480 Speaker 1: twenty percent voting representation to include active athletes completed within 603 00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:01,200 Speaker 1: the last ten years, ensuring the athletes have some say 604 00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:05,839 Speaker 1: and the way their sports are formed. UM skipping ahead, UH, 605 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:09,480 Speaker 1: tiny bit. So this wasn't necessarily a response to the 606 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,720 Speaker 1: factors of increased rigor at the amateur level, but spurred 607 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,760 Speaker 1: on by the same issues of Soviet state sponsored athletes 608 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:18,560 Speaker 1: having an upper hand, as well as the issues UH 609 00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:21,640 Speaker 1: with the a AU. As you all discussed in the podcast, 610 00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:24,800 Speaker 1: a AU had made some questionable decisions regarding the rules 611 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,080 Speaker 1: they had in place and the ways in which these 612 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:31,120 Speaker 1: rules were interpreted and enforced. So there is some more 613 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,120 Speaker 1: detail in the email from there. I had not looked 614 00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:40,680 Speaker 1: more deeply into how the the amateur definitions and requirements 615 00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:46,000 Speaker 1: had UM had developed following Jim Thorpe's time in the Olympics. UM. 616 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:50,800 Speaker 1: I know there is still so many other social and 617 00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:56,120 Speaker 1: UH and representative issues going on in the world of sports, um, 618 00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,520 Speaker 1: and it is fascinating to me that how how much 619 00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:02,800 Speaker 1: of that was related to not exactly international politics, but 620 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:04,719 Speaker 1: having like grown up in the tail end of the 621 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:06,520 Speaker 1: Cold War, I was like, oh, yeah, that makes a 622 00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:10,240 Speaker 1: lot of sense. So anyway, thank you so much Dustin 623 00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:15,319 Speaker 1: for poking into all that and sending us what you found. Uh, 624 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:17,280 Speaker 1: if anyone else would like to write to us about 625 00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:20,000 Speaker 1: this or any other podcast, we are at History Podcast 626 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:23,400 Speaker 1: at iHeart radio dot com, and we're all over social 627 00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:27,360 Speaker 1: media at miss in History just where you'll find our Facebook, interest, Twitter, 628 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,600 Speaker 1: and Instagram, and you can subscribe to our show on 629 00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,840 Speaker 1: Apple podcasts and the I heart Radio app and anywhere 630 00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:41,080 Speaker 1: else to get your podcasts. Stuff you missed in History 631 00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:43,799 Speaker 1: Class is a production of I heart Radio. 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