1716-1794

Scottish Naval Surgeon

James Lind is associated with the elimination of scurvy, proving through an early clinical trial that citrus fruits were immediately effective in curing the symptoms of this disease, whereas other common remedies were not. Following this trial aboard the Salisbury in 1747, he published a definitive study of scurvy in 1753, A Treatise of the Scurvy. Containing an inquiry into the Nature, Causes and Cure of the Disease. Together with a Critical and Chronological View of what has been published on the subject.

James Lind was born in 1716 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, for whom he was named, was a well-to-do merchant. Lind received training in both Latin and Greek as a youth and was apprenticed to a local physician at age 15. Little else is known of Lind's youth or early training until he joined the British Navy as a surgeon's mate in 1739.

Lind...