Editor's Foreword

Stewart CP and Guthrie D (1953) Editor’s Foreword LIND’S TREATISE ON SCURVY A Bicentennary Volume containing a reprint of the First Edition of A TREATISE OF THE SCURVY by James Lind, M.D. with Additional Notes EDITED BY C. P. STEWART, Ph.D., D.Sc. AND DOUGLAS GUTHRIE, M.D. F.R.C.S.E Book reviews of the 1953 version https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM195310012491410 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1953.03690150096035 https://doi.org/10.1113/expphysiol.1953.sp001028 Links to the original versions of Lind’s Treatise are at the end of this document. This is a copy of the 1953 publication, pp.v-vii, to make the text more widely available. This is located at: https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.10604637 Another series of publications to honour the 200-year anniversary of Lind’s Treatise was in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. The contents of the special issue: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-nutrition-society/issue/ B5C5B1FF2F5E8592C93785E85D6DE286 Digitized in 2024 by Harri Hemilä, University of Helsinki, Finland https://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/hemila https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4710-307X 1 EDITORS’ FOREWORD C. P. STEWART DOUGLAS GUTHRIE IN 1753, James Lind, an Edinburgh man, a graduate in Medicine of Edinburgh University and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, published in Edinburgh his Treatise of the Scurvy. This work demonstrated beyond all doubt that scurvy, a disease which both at sea and on land was costing thousands of lives every year, could readily be cured or—even more important—prevented. Not only did the book, once its lessons had been learned and applied, lead to the virtual disappearance of scurvy, but through its presentation of the subject, with its devastating criticism of superstition and muddled thinking, its insistence on careful observation and controlled experiment, its rigid reliance on facts and its logical interpretation of them, it became one of the great medical classics of all time. Moreover, in outlook and in literary style—perhaps because he consciously ‘aimed at perspicuity rather than elegance of diction’—Lind is surprisingly modern. Although three editions were required between 1753 and 1772 and it was translated into French, German and Italian, the Treatise of the Scurvy has long been unobtainable except from the shelves of major medical libraries. Nevertheless it has not been without readers, as witness a copy of the third edition in Edinburgh, ornamented by undergraduate annotations and marginal caricatures of Victorian surgeons. The reprinting of the Treatise two hundred years after its original publication pays tribute to a very great man, its author, who received little enough recognition during his lifetime. It also makes available an eminently readable book which is a model of what a scientific treatise should be and includes an account of a controlled clinical trial which for execution and interpretation could not be bettered in any research institute to-day. The occasion decided the choice of the edition to be reprinted ; the choice of the first edition was made easier by the fact that the second edition is little more than a reprint, whilst the third edition, although containing the results of Lind’s later observations at Haslar, does not differ in any really important way. The text has not been altered, except 2 for the correction of one or two obvious misprints in the original ; and Lind’s own language, with his eighteenth-century spelling and punctuation, reflects the atmosphere of the time and the living enthusiasm of the logical scientist. A minor point is that, as evidence of Lind’s meticulous care in the search for truth, we have retained (though in altered position) the short list of rather trivial errata which he inserted in the first edition. However, to make for more comfortable reading it has been thought desirable to modernise the typography and to limit the use of italic type in accordance with present custom. When and where Lind’s teaching was applied, scurvy disappeared. Yet the study of scurvy and of the actual nutritional factors concerned in its prevention still continues. It seemed right, therefore, that this volume in honour of Lind should contain not only a reprint of one of his three great books but also an outline of the later history of the disease. Equally, since Lind was not only the man whose work led to the disappearance of epidemic scurvy and the consequent saving of untold lives, but one of the greatest pioneers in the field of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, it seemed right to attempt an assessment of his work and influence in general. These considerations justify the presence and decide the contents of the ‘Additional Notes’ which form the second part of this Bicentenary Volume. Since the account, in the Additional Notes, of the recent history of scurvy and vitamin-C could not attempt to give an exhaustive review of modern research, it has been thought undesirable to burden it with a long list of references to original papers. Such a list could not possibly be complete, for the annual output of papers on vitamin-C is to-day greater than the total number of works on scurvy listed by Lind. Hence only a few key references have been given. For similar reasons, a detailed index was felt to be out of place in a book of this character. Finally comes the pleasant task of thanking those whose generous help has so greatly facilitated the production of the book. Contributions to the Additional Notes have been duly attributed to their authors whose assistance is thereby acknowledged, but Sir Sheldon Dudley was also responsible for obtaining two illustrations, and Dr A. P. Meiklejohn has throughout given most helpful criticism and advice. 3 The portrait of Lind1 is published by the kind permission of the Medical Director-General of the Navy; the picture of the Salisbury is from a photograph of a model of the ship, kindly supplied, with permission to publish, by the National Maritime Museum. To the President and Council of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh our thanks are due for permission to photograph Lind’s letter in the College archives and to publish it and the facsimile signature. The Royal College of Physicians was also kind enough to lend the copy of Lind’s Treatise for the preparation of the reprint and to permit reproduction of the title-page. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lind#/media/File:James_Lind_by_Chalmers.jpg https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/wp-data/themes/jameslind/images/lind-portrait.jpg https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/19/1/22/F1.large.jpg [“there is no information as to its whereabouts from then until it was purchased in Johannesburg in November 1953 by Kurt and Lorna Hepner. It is not known who the seller was, but it could well have been an art dealer. Since then the portrait has remained in the Hepner family.”] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3536516 https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.2012.12k091 4 Lind J. A Treatise of the Scurvy in Three Parts (1753/1757/1772) https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.1983.tb07177.x https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107256644 https://archive.org/details/b30507054 (1st ed 1753) https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xc2t7736 (2nd ed 1757) https://archive.org/details/treatiseonscurvy00lind (2nd ed 1757) https://archive.org/details/treatiseonscurvy1772lind (3rd ed 1772) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24970496M (3rd ed 1772) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26752931M (3rd ed 1772) https://archive.org/details/b30511902 (3rd ed 1772) https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-treatise-on-the-scurvy_lind-james_1772 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucm.5320216006 (3rd ed 1772) https://archive.org/details/b28771308_0001 (French, 1783) https://archive.org/details/b28771308_0002 (French, 1783) https://archive.org/details/traitduscorbutdi00lind (French, 1783) https://archive.org/details/traitduscorbutdi00lind_0 (French, 1783) https://archive.org/details/TrattatoDelloScorbutoDivisoInTreParti (Italian, 1766) 5