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1753
LIND, JAMES. A Treatise of the
Scurvy.Edinburgh: Sands, Murray & Cochran, 1753.
James Lind wrote in his Treatise of the Scurvy: "On the 20th of
May, 1747, I took twelve patients in the scurvy on board the
Salisbury at sea. Their cases were as similar as I could have
them." Thus began his description of his classic therapeutic experiment
on sailors with the scurvy in which various, then proposed remedies,
were tested as antiscorbutics. His experiment provided clear evidence of
the curative value of oranges and lemons and was also the first example
of a controlled clinical nutrition study using human subjects.
James Lind was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of a merchant. At
age 15 he was apprenticed to a physician and in 1739 passed the
examination for surgeon's mate in the Royal Navy. A year after his
famous experiment he retired from the Navy, obtained a medical degree,
and entered private practice. Ten years later he became physician at the
Royal Naval Hospital at Portsmouth.
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