The Cure He Boiled Away

In May 1747, aboard HMS Salisbury in the Bay of Biscay, the Scottish naval surgeon James Lind ran what is generally called the first controlled clinical trial in medical history. He took twelve scurvy-stricken sailors, divided them into six pairs, and gave each pair a different putative cure: a quart of cider, twenty-five drops of elixir of vitriol, six spoonfuls of vinegar, half a pint of seawater, a spicy electuary paste, or two oranges and a lemon. Same berth, same diet otherwise. Within six days the citrus pair had recovered. One was fit for duty. The other was well enough to nurse the rest.

He then spent the next forty years burying it.

In 1753 he published a 450-page Treatise of the Scurvy that does not quite recommend lemons, preferring to wander through malt infusions, vinegars, and meditations on moist sea air. Then, for shipboard use, he proposed boiling the citrus juice down into a thick syrup he called a 'rob.' The heat destroyed the vitamin C. The Admiralty issued it for decades. Captain Cook took it on the Endeavour, found it useless, and told everyone the real answer was malt wort and sauerkraut.

The Navy adopted daily lemon juice in 1795.

Lind had died the previous July.