230 SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



to develop the disease. Often, in past centuries, a half 

 or two-thirds of a ship's company have been carried off 

 by it before a port could be reached and healthy food 

 and conditions of life obtained. At the present moment 

 in view of the actual condition of Europe, it is a fact 

 of very grave importance that scurvy is known to break 

 out and cause a terrible mortality among civil communities 

 in time of scarcity — especially in prisons, workhouses, and 

 other public institutions, which are the first to suffer 

 deprivations when food is scarce. 



Three hundred years ago it was held that fresh 

 vegetables and fruit-juices were both a cure for and a 

 preventive of scurvy, or " anti-scorbutic." But the fact 

 was not appreciated by Army and Admiralty officials 

 that dried vegetables, even of kinds which were held to 

 be especially " anti-scorbutic," would not serve in place 

 of fresh ones. In 1720, dried " anti-scorbutic " herbs were 

 supplied to the Austrian Army when suffering from 

 scurvy ; but they were of no avail, and thousands of the 

 soldiers perished from the disease. A few years later, 

 the British Lords of the Admiralty (actuated by a 

 spirit of blundering parsimony) proposed to supply the 

 Navy with dried spinach, although it was well known 

 that dried vegetables were useless against scurvy. In 

 the American Civil War, 1861-1865, in spite of this 

 knowledge, large rations of dried vegetables were supplied 

 to the armies, and failed to prevent outbreaks of scurvy. 

 Even at the present day so little attention has been 

 given of late years to the subject, that many ignorant 

 officials, upon whose action the life of thousands depends, 

 regard dried vegetables as equivalent in value to fresh ! 



A great advance was made in the second half of the 

 eighteenth century, when the British Admiralty became 

 convinced by the repeated experience of its officers that 

 " lime-juice " is a specific remedy and preventive for 



