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The Scorbutic Story Evince the Fallacy of All Positive Assertions John Rivers in the Healing Art"

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The Scorbutic Story Evince the Fallacy of All Positive Assertions John Rivers in the Healing Art _N_A_TU_R_E_V_O_L_._32_4_13_N_O_V_E_M_B_E_R_19_8_6 ____________----AUTUMN BOOKS--------------------------------------177 that "enlarged experience must ever The scorbutic story evince the fallacy of all positive assertions John Rivers in the healing art". Captain James Cook, too, is seen in a more perceptive light. Cook's circumnavi­ The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C. gation of the world was free from scurvy By Kenneth J. Carpenter. Cambridge not simply because he used Lind's prescri­ University Press: 1986. Pp.288. £27.50, bed lemon juice. He took almost every $39.50. antiscorbutic that anyone recommended, with the result that the trip provided no JOHN Le Carre might have told this story test of Lind's hypothesis. Indeed, says INSTITUTE OF better, but I doubt that he could have pro­ Carpenter, Cook may have delayed the TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY duced a better book. Like Kenneth Car­ general introduction of lemon juice as a penter, Le Carre could have told the tor­ prophylactic because every theorist drew Landscape changes in Britain tuous tale of 400 years of medical mis­ sustenance for their pet idea from his pro­ C.l. Barr, C.B. Benefield, understanding of scurvy, leading along visioning strategy; the award of the Royal R.G.H. Bunce, false trails, down blind alleys and round Society'S Copley medal to Cook, for his H.A. Ridsdale & and round in circles. And Le Carre would success in avoiding scurvy, seems to have if anything have made the reader more been supported by Sir John Pringle, the M. Whittaker aware that, because scurvy was a disease President of the Royal Society, because he A largely visual presentation of that particularly afflicted armies and espe­ regarded Cook's triumph as evidence in results from 2 landscape surveys cially navies, we are dealing not only with favour of his favourite hypothesis that of Great Britain. medicine but with grand strategy. The real malted grain was the preventative of 28pp, 0904282953 £3.00 difference in treatment would come in the choice. last chapter where, the history of scurvy Such re-evaluations are the result of Pollution in Cumbria having become the story of the discovery careful research on Professor Carpenter's P.lneson of vitamin C, the author presents a sci­ part, not idle iconoclasticism. Indeed, in entific retrospect in which centuries of springing to the defence of the Admiralty, Proceedings of a symposium confusion are put beneath the spotlight of Carpenter attacks the iconoclasticism of concerned with acid rain, modern knowledge. If Le Carre had others. It is often held that the con­ radioactivity, industrial and unleashed Smiley on these problems, the tinuance of scurvy in the British navies agricultural pollution. denouement would have been far more during the nineteenth century was the re­ 92pp, 0904282 961 £5.75 slick. sult of the Admiralty'S penny-pinching de­ Professor Carpenter, however, has cision to abandon lemon juice in favour of Coast dune management been too honest and thorough in his analy­ lime juice from the West Indian colonies guide sis to pretend that all the questions are which, though cheaper, had no vitamin C now resolved. Some, of course, are: the activity. The truth is not so simple. Not D.S. Ranwell & R. Boar mystery of why the Esquimaux didn't get only are limes a good source of vitamin C, How to use vegetation for coast scurvy, despite eating no vegetables and but the words lemon and lime were used protection activities, with fruit, is explained by the ascorbic acid con­ interchangeably and it is not always possi­ particular reference to sand tent of fresh raw meat. But other prob­ ble to be sure what was being done. Car­ dunes. lems remain perplexing even today. Why, penter suggests that the ineffectiveness of 105pp, 0 904282 93 7 £6.00 for example, were so many cases of ship­ lime juice may have been due to catalysis board scurvy apparently cured by the of the oxidation of the ascorbic acid by Distribution and status of once-favoured mixture of vinegar and copper in the stills and vessels used to potassium nitrate? The mixture contains concentrate the juice, compounded by bats in Europe no vitamin C; so was it lies, self deception, overlong storage. The Admiralty was R.E. Stebbings & F. Griffith a placebo effect on an unprecedented doing its best; it was the scientists who 31 species are described under scale or something we don't yet under­ were wrong. the following headings: stand. The problem is left hanging. This is an extremely detailed book, and distribution, habitat, Some certainties fall apart beneath Car­ at times I wondered whether Carpenter population, threats, penter's critical analysis. James Lind, for should not have begun with the modern conservation measures, example, doesn't seem anywhere near so knowledge of vitamin C to aid the reader epoch-making when Carpenter has in interpreting the sheer mass of erro­ bibliography. finished with him. On the bicentennial of neous evidence and theory that runs down 142pp. 0904282945 £5.00 the publication of A Treatise on Scurvy, the centuries: a sort of answers first, ques­ Lind was beatified by scientists as the in­ tions afterwards strategy. But the lack of Full list from: ventor of the clinical trial and the first certainty in the final clarification shows Publications Section truly modern nutritionist. But the Lind to that we don't yet have all the answers, and Merlewood Research Station whom Professor Carpenter draws our some questions must just remain. That Grange-over-Sands attention ends up more human, someone alone makes the book worthwhile, as well Cumbria LA 11 6JU. UK who despite his studies on lemon juice as as delightful to read, and a volume that an antiscorbutic believed that cold and will inform and entertain both historians Many earlier titles now reduced in price. damp air actually caused scurvy. By the and scientists - and, indeed, anyone who end of his life, it seems, Lind was a deeply likes a good mystery story, even if it isn't pessimistic man, doubting his own obser­ written by Le Carre. D Natural vations which he was unable to replicate in EnViron. ment studies at Haslar hospital, where even the John Rivers is a Senior Lecturer in the Depart­ Research ment of Human Nutrition, London School of ACouncIl controls mysteriously recovered, and con­ Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, cluding in the third edition of his Treatise London We1 E 7HT, UK. Reader Service No.20 © 1986 Nature Publishing Group.
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