Editing Vitamin C (section)

===Scurvy at sea===
[[File:Wiki Loves Cocktails at WikiCon 2016, 2017 (1Y7A1464).jpg|thumb|left|alt=Limes, lemons and oranges identified as preventing scurvy|Limes, lemons and oranges were among foods identified early as preventing or treating scurvy on long sailing voyages.]]
In the 1497 expedition of [[Vasco da Gama]], the curative effects of citrus fruit were known.<ref name="pmid11581484">{{cite journal | vauthors = Rajakumar K | title = Infantile scurvy: a historical perspective | journal = Pediatrics | volume = 108 | issue = 4 | pages = E76 | date = October 2001 | pmid = 11581484 | doi = 10.1542/peds.108.4.e76 | url = http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/108/4/e76.full | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150904021206/http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/108/4/e76.full | archive-date=September 4, 2015 | quote = As they sailed farther up the east coast of Africa, they met local traders, who traded them fresh oranges. Within six days of eating the oranges, da Gama's crew recovered fully | citeseerx = 10.1.1.566.5857 }}</ref> In the 1500s, Portuguese sailors put in to the island of [[Saint Helena]] to avail themselves of planted vegetable gardens and wild-growing fruit trees.<ref name="Livermore-2004">{{cite journal | vauthors = Livermore H | title = Santa Helena, a forgotten Portuguese discovery | journal = Estudos Em Homenagem a Luis Antonio de Oliveira Ramos | trans-journal = Studies in Homage to Luis Antonio de Oliveira Ramos. | date = 2004 | pages = 623–631 | url = http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/4999.pdf | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110529065201/http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/4999.pdf | archive-date = May 29, 2011 | quote = On returning, Lopes' ship had left him on St Helena, where with admirable sagacity and industry he planted vegetables and nurseries with which passing ships were marvelously sustained. [...] There were 'wild groves' of oranges, lemons and other fruits that ripened all the year round, large pomegranates and figs. }}</ref> Authorities occasionally recommended plant food to prevent scurvy during long sea voyages. [[John Woodall]], the first surgeon to the British [[East India Company]], recommended the preventive and curative use of [[lemon]] juice in his 1617 book, ''The Surgeon's Mate''.<ref name="Woodall-1617">{{cite book | vauthors = Woodall J | title = The Surgion's Mate | location = London, England | publisher = Edward Griffin | date = 1617 | page = 89 | url = https://archive.org/stream/surgionsmateortr00wood#page/89/mode/1up | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160411083503/https://archive.org/stream/surgionsmateortr00wood | archive-date=April 11, 2016 | quote = Succus Limonum, or juice of Lemons ... [is] the most precious help that ever was discovered against the Scurvy[;] to be drunk at all times; ... }}</ref> In 1734, the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] writer [[Johann Bachstrom]] gave the firm opinion, "scurvy is solely owing to a total abstinence from fresh vegetable food, and greens."<ref name="Armstrong-1858">{{cite journal | vauthors = Armstrong A |journal=British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review: Or, Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine and Surgery |title=Observation on naval hygiene and scurvy, more particularly as the later appeared during the Polar voyage |volume=22 |pages=295–305 |year=1858 |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=7VJYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA295 }}</ref><!--https://books.google.com/books?id=azXx4cbrMZMC&pg=PA74 would also work out--><ref name="Bachstrom-1734">{{cite book | vauthors = Bachstrom JF | title = Observationes circa scorbutum | trans-title = Observations on scurvy | language = Latin | location = Leiden (Lugdunum Batavorum), Netherlands | publisher = Conrad Wishof | date = 1734 | page = 16 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bj8_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA16 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160101135046/https://books.google.com/books?id=bj8_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA16 | archive-date = January 1, 2016 | quote = ... sed ex nostra causa optime explicatur, que est absentia, carentia & abstinentia a vegetabilibus recentibus, ... ( ... but [this misfortune] is explained very well by our [supposed] cause, which is the absence of, lack of, and abstinence from fresh vegetables, ... }}</ref> Scurvy had long been a principal killer of sailors during the long sea voyages.<ref name="url_BBC_Captain_Cook_Scurvy">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/captaincook_scurvy_01.shtml |title=Captain Cook and the scourge of scurvy |publisher=BBC |work=British History in depth | vauthors = Lamb J |date=February 17, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221073823/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/captaincook_scurvy_01.shtml |archive-date=February 21, 2011 }}</ref> According to Jonathan Lamb, "In 1499, Vasco da Gama lost 116 of his crew of 170; In 1520, Magellan lost 208 out of 230;&nbsp;... all mainly to scurvy."<ref name="Lamb-2001">{{cite book | vauthors = Lamb J |title=Preserving the self in the south seas, 1680–1840 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2001 |page=117 |isbn=978-0-226-46849-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hSoj1DR4ZSMC |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430065803/https://books.google.com/books?id=hSoj1DR4ZSMC&pg=&dq |archive-date=April 30, 2016 }}</ref>

[[File:James Lind by Chalmers.jpg|thumb|upright|[[James Lind]], a British Royal Navy surgeon who, in 1747, identified that a quality in fruit prevented scurvy in one of the first recorded [[Scientific control#Controlled experiments|controlled experiments]]<ref name="Baron2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Baron JH | title = Sailors' scurvy before and after James Lind--a reassessment | journal = Nutrition Reviews | volume = 67 | issue = 6 | pages = 315–32 | date = June 2009 | pmid = 19519673 | doi = 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2009.00205.x | s2cid = 20435128 }}</ref>]]

The first attempt to give scientific basis for the cause of this disease was by a ship's surgeon in the [[Royal Navy]], [[James Lind]]. While at sea in May 1747, Lind provided some crew members with two oranges and one lemon per day, in addition to normal rations, while others continued on [[cider]], [[vinegar]], [[sulfuric acid]] or [[seawater]], along with their normal rations, in one of the world's first controlled experiments.<ref name="Baron2009" /> The results showed that citrus fruits prevented the disease. Lind published his work in 1753 in his ''Treatise on the Scurvy''.<ref name="lind_james">{{cite book | vauthors = Lind J |title=A treatise of the scurvy |publisher=A. Millar |location=London |year=1753 }} In the 1757 edition of his work, Lind discusses his experiment starting on {{cite web |title=A treatise of the scurvy | url = https://archive.org/stream/treatiseonscurvy00lind#page/149/mode/1up | page = 149 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160320155753/https://archive.org/stream/treatiseonscurvy00lind | archive-date=March 20, 2016 }}</ref>

Fresh fruit was expensive to keep on board, whereas boiling it down to juice allowed easy storage, but destroyed the vitamin (especially if it was boiled in copper kettles).<ref name="Oxford" /> It was 1796 before the British navy adopted [[lemon]] juice as standard issue at sea. In 1845, ships in the West Indies were provided with [[Lime (fruit)|lime]] juice instead, and in 1860 lime juice was used throughout the Royal Navy, giving rise to the American use of the nickname [[Glossary of names for the British|"limey"]] for the British.<ref name="Baron2009" /> [[James Cook|Captain James Cook]] had previously demonstrated the advantages of carrying [[Sauerkraut|"Sour krout"]] on board by taking his crew on a 1772–75 Pacific Ocean voyage without losing any of his men to scurvy.<ref name="isbn0-14-043647-2">{{cite book |vauthors=Beaglehole JH, Cook JD, Edwards PR |title=The journals of Captain Cook |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth [Eng.] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-14-043647-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/journalsofcaptai00jame }}</ref> For his report on his methods the British Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal in 1776.<ref name="The Royal Society-2015">{{cite web |url=https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/copley-medal/ |title=Copley Medal, past winners |date= |website=The Royal Society |access-date=January 1, 2024 |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906190948/https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/copley-medal/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The name ''antiscorbutic'' was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for foods known to prevent scurvy. These foods included lemons, limes, oranges, sauerkraut, cabbage, [[malt]], and [[portable soup]].<ref name="isbn1-74114-200-8">{{cite book |vauthors=Reeve J, Stevens DA |title=Navy and the nation: the influence of the navy on modern Australia |publisher=Allen & Unwin Academic |year=2006 |page=74 |isbn=978-1-74114-200-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BGs6__kbqKIC&pg=PA74 |chapter=Cook's Voyages 1768–1780 }}</ref> In 1928, the Canadian Arctic anthropologist [[Vilhjalmur Stefansson]] showed that the [[Inuit]] avoided scurvy on a diet largely of raw meat. Later studies on traditional food diets of the [[Yukon]] [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]], [[Dene]], [[Inuit]], and [[Métis#Métis people in Canada|Métis]] of Northern Canada showed that their daily intake of vitamin C averaged between 52 and 62&nbsp;mg/day.<ref name="pmid15173410">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kuhnlein HV, Receveur O, Soueida R, Egeland GM | title = Arctic indigenous peoples experience the nutrition transition with changing dietary patterns and obesity | journal = The Journal of Nutrition | volume = 134 | issue = 6 | pages = 1447–53 | date = June 2004 | pmid = 15173410 | doi = 10.1093/jn/134.6.1447| df = mdy-all | doi-access = free | title-link = doi }}</ref>