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What was Scurvy?
What was
scurvy?
Scurvy was a very common disease, especially among
soldiers and sailors, hundreds of years ago. It is much more rare
these days, because we know what causes it and how to prevent it. But
in earlier years, when people travelled on ships for long periods of
time out of the sight of land, it was very common for crews to get
sick and to die from scurvy. (back
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What are the symptoms of
scurvy?
The first sign that someone was getting scurvy was
that they got very tired whenever they did any work, and they felt
sad and depressed. Their face would go yellowish, and their eyes sink
in, and their gums get very sore and tender. Then their gums would
start to bleed, and they would suffer from painful muscle cramps. At
this stage they could not keep doing any work on the ship, because
they were too sick.
Eventually their teeth would start to fall out,
and they would start to bleed badly. They would also suffer from
diarrhoea and kidney problems, and eventually die. (back
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What causes
scurvy?
It took a while for doctors to figure out
why sailors got scurvy, but eventually they worked out that
it is caused by a lack of vitamin C in their diet. Vitamin C
is found in fresh fruit and vegetables, and it was nearly
impossible to keep fresh food on board a ship for months at
a time, so sailors tended to live on dried and preserved
food. That explained why scurvy was so common on long sea
voyages, or with antarctic explorers, or indeed with very
poor people who could not afford to buy fresh food.
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Can scurvy be
treated?
The good news was that even when someone
was very sick with scurvy, giving them some fresh fruit or
vegetables with vitamin C in was often enough to cure them,
even though it would take some time. Potatoes, cabbage,
onions, carrots, turnips and fresh fruit are all good for
preventing or curing scurvy. Lime juice or lemon juice is
excellent. (back to
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How was scurvy
prevented?
Because scurvy made sailors so sick that
they could not work, as soon as doctors told people how it
could be prevented, they started including fresh food in
their diet. It was difficult to store such food so that it
did not go bad during long voyages, but they tried their
best.
The British Navy began giving their
sailors a daily ration of lime juice in 1795, and this meant
that none of their sailors got scurvy.
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