Lind, James (redirected from Lind)

Lind, James, 1716–94, English naval surgeon. Considered the founder of naval hygiene in England, Lind observed on a ten-week cruise (1746) that 80 seamen of 350 came down with scurvy. In his Treatise of the Scurvy (1753) he emphasized the preventive effect of ingesting fresh fruit or lemon juice, thus reviving a practice of Dutch and English seafarers of the 16th cent. However, it was not until 1795, and through the efforts of Sir Gilbert Blane (1749–1834), that lemon juice was officially ordered as part of naval rations by the Admiralty. Lind also improved sanitary conditions aboard ships of the line, advocated the distilling of seawater for drinking purposes on long journeys, and, through his writings on tropical diseases, helped prevent much unnecessary loss of life during British campaigns.

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Lind, James

(born 1716, Edinburgh, Scot.—died July 13, 1794, Gosport, Hampshire, Eng.) Scottish naval surgeon and physician. Having observed thousands of scurvy, typhus, and dysentery cases and the shipboard conditions that caused them, he published A Treatise on Scurvy in 1754, a time when scurvy killed more British sailors than combat. He recommended giving citrus fruits and juices (sources of vitamin C) to sailors on long voyages, a practice known to the Dutch for nearly two centuries. When the practice was fully instituted in 1795, scurvy disappeared from the ranks “as if by magic.” Lind also suggested shipboard delousing and use of hospital ships, and he arranged for distillation of seawater for drinking.