Monday, March 8, 2010
Scurvy...
The evils of scurvy were banished in the 1700s, or so I was taught. While reading about Robert F. Scott's 1911 journey to Antarctica, Maciej Cegłowski caught something interesting: Scott's expedition was plagued by scurvy. How could that be? Ceglowski's pursuit of the answer to that question is fascinating, and sobering. Ceglowski must have an interesting life story himself: of Polish ancestry, but American, and now living in Romania.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Limey
ReplyDeleteLimey is an old American and Canadian slang nickname for the British, originally referring to British sailors. The term is believed to derive from lime-juicer, referring to the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy practice of supplying lime juice to British sailors to prevent scurvy. The benefits of citrus juice were well known at the time thanks to the acute observations of surgeon James Lind, who noticed that the cabbage-eating Dutch had fewer problems with scurvy. Limes were used over lemons because limes were more readily available from Britain's own Caribbean colonies.