Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 937

JAMES LIND (1716-1794) Traité du scorbut. Chez Ganeau 1756 Vol. I: [4] xlv, 471 pp.; Vol. II: [4] 507 [5] pp. 16.5 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 936

This work, first published by Lind at Edinburgh in 1753, was translated into French by the French physicians, J. Savary (fl. 1750) and Thomas Carrère (1714-1764). The translators give a concise but complete historical account of scurvy in the preface and have also translated Boerhaave's treatise on scurvy, with Van Swieten's commentary, from his Aphorisms. In his autobiography, Sir Geoffrey Keynes notes that the credit for the discovery of the treatment of scurvy should go to John Woodall (1570-1643) who first described the etiology, symptoms, and treatment of scurvy in his book The surgion's [sic] mate (London, 1617). Keynes remarked that "after his death in 1643 both he and his book were soon forgotten--with disastrous results, particularly for the British Navy. . . . The whole affair is a most extraordinary example of how easily important facts may be forgotten through failure to consult the history of medicine" (The gates of memory. Oxford, 1981. p. 361).

Cited references: Wellcome III, p. 520 (Vol. II only)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.