One of the first clinical trials: 12 sailors, 6 treatments.

In 1747, the Scottish ship's surgeon James Lind divided twelve scurvy patients aboard HMS Salisbury into six pairs and gave each pair a different remedy: cider, vinegar, seawater, dilute sulphuric acid, a spice paste, or two oranges and a lemon daily. Only the citrus group recovered within days. The Royal Navy still didn't mandate lemon juice until 1795.

Useful: A clean comparison persuades faster than a hundred anecdotes, even if institutions take decades.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Fruehe neuzeit MedizinSeefahrt

Difficulty:

Related cards

How a pocket watch solved the longitude problem.Latitude could be read from the Sun's height, longitude couldn't: you need the time at your home …
The first circumnavigation: 5 ships out, 1 back.In September 1519, five ships with about 270 men under Ferdinand Magellan left Spain. Magellan …
After his death, Bach's choral works were dismissed as old-fashioned for decades.After Bach's death in 1750 his music was deemed old-fashioned; his great choral works went unheard …
How Gutenberg's press worked, and what was actually new.Movable type already existed in China and Korea. Gutenberg's trick, around 1440, was the hand …
In 1582, ten days simply vanished from the calendar.The Julian calendar ran about 11 minutes too long per year; by 1582 the spring equinox had drifted …
Europe's first printed book: 180 copies, 49 survive.Around 1454/55 in Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg printed his 42-line Bible, the first major book in …
Marie Antoinette never said 'Let them eat cake'.The line, originally 'Let them eat brioche', appears in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 'Confessions' …
Mozart only wrote half of his most famous work.When Mozart died in Vienna on 5 December 1791, aged 35, his Requiem in D minor was unfinished: only …

Keep reading

This card belongs to the topic History & Culture. Every card is short, cites a source and can be saved – due ones come back by themselves later.

About Doomlearn · Projects · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms