Lind, James (1716–1794)

James Lind, the founder of British naval hygiene, was a Scottish physician who discovered the cause of scurvy, a dietary deficiency due to lack of vitamin C. His legacy as one of the first modern clinical investigators reflected his desire to improve the health of soldiers and sailors.

Lind was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of Margaret Smelum and James Lind, a merchant. In 1731, Lind registered as an apprentice to George Langlands, an Edinburgh physician. Lind began his naval career in 1739 as a surgeon's mate and was promoted to surgeon in 1747.

While serving on the H.M.S. Salisbury in 1747, Lind carried out experiments on scurvy. He selected 12 men from the ship, all suffering from symptoms of scurvy and divided them into six pairs. He then gave each group different supplements to their basic diet. Two men were given an unspecified elixir three times a day; two were treated with seawater; two were fed with a combination of garlic, mustard, and horseradish; two were given spoonfuls of vinegar; two received a quart of cider a day; and the last two were given two oranges and one lemon every day. Lind recorded no improvement with the first four diets, slight improvement in the men given cider, and significant improvement in those fed citrus fruit.

In 1748, Lind left the navy and obtained his M.D. from the University of Edinburgh later that year. In 1750, Lind became fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and later served as treasurer from December 1756 to 1758. He published A Treatise of the Scurvy in 1753. Although the Treatise garnered little acclaim at the time, it attracted the attention of Lord Anson, then first Lord of the Admiralty, and to whom it was dedicated. Lord Anson was influential in securing Lind's appointment to the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar in 1758. During the 1760s, Lind published several treatises on preventive and tropical medicine, proposing a simple method of supplying ships with fresh water distillation and providing advice on the prevention of tropical fevers. When Lind retired from the Naval Hospital in 1783, his son John succeeded him as chief physician.

Lind was never elected a fellow of the Royal Society, nor were his dietary recommendations immediately realized. Forty years passed before an official Admiralty Order on the supply of lemon juice to ships was issued in 1795, a year after his death. When this order was implemented, scurvy disappeared from the Fleets and Naval hospitals.