[Gullivers] Scurvy, a fact of life

[Lev Lafayette]

On Mon, 2009-03-09 at 22:28 -0700, Carl Brown wrote:
> Scurvy is a fact of life among sea-farers at the time of GTC. Want to
> do something about it?
> The rule would be an advanced aspect and look something like this:
>  
> Treat Scurvy
> Historically no one person had this Aspect, it was achieved by
> numerous people over the coarse of over a hundred years. The character
> needs Great understanding of Physic to determine that the specific
> kind of acidic principle in citrus fruits and other foods prevents and
> cures scurvy. This is best done by formally proving the hypothesis on
> a long sea voyage and presenting your results as a book or at the
> Royal Academy. A Great breadth of Logistics knowledge is needed to
> find some method of storing the foods with the acidic principle
> intact. Finally, you need to spread the word of your discovery. A
> Great persuasion skill is needed to have a large maritime
> organisation, such as the Royal Navy, to adopt your proposals as
> standard procedure.
> 

>From Wikipedia article on 'Scurvy'.

Herbal cures for scurvy have been known in many native cultures since
prehistory. In 1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier, exploring the
St. Lawrence River, used the local natives' knowledge to save his men
who were dying of scurvy. He boiled the needles of the arbor vitae tree
(Eastern White Cedar) to make a tea that was later shown to contain 50
mg of vitamin C per 100 grams.[1][2] Such treatments were not available
aboard ship, where the disease was most common. It was a Scottish
surgeon in the British Royal Navy, James Lind who first proved it could
be treated with citrus fruit in experiments he described in his 1753
book, A Treatise of the Scurvy

Before it was written in a textbook, one can be certain that it would
have been known at least among some sailor's folklore for at least a
generation prior - especially considering that treatment had been known
to at least some Europeans since the mid-sixteenth century. Rather than
Physician I would suggest a skill or aspect in knowing "old native's
tales" and the like is more appropriate at this stage. Perhaps in the
mid-18th century a more systematic knowledge is developed; but prior to
that it's simply a case of being fortunate enough to hear about people
were cured...