Today the Google “doodle,”  the image that appears above the Google search box, was an orange. Why an orange?  If you clicked on the doodle it took you to a search for Albert Szent-Györgyi,  the Hungarian physiologist who is credited with discovering vitamin C in 1930 and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937 for his research. It is his birth day today.  An article in CNN commented, “ if you don’t have scurvy (and we’re going to go ahead and assume you do not), you should probably take a moment to say thanks.”  What? Without taking anything away from Dr. Szent-Györgyi, scurvy was not cured in 1930 in Hungary.  The cure for scury was discovered and then,  too often forgotten, many times between when it was documented by Hippocrates and the 19th century.

The curative effects of citrus was known in the 1497 expedition of Vasco de Gama.  Nevertheless, between 1500 and 1800 an estimated two million sailors died of scurvy. Magellan lost 208 out of 230 crew, primarily to the disease. During the 18th century, scurvy killed more British sailors than enemy action.

In 1747 the Scottish doctor James Lind proved, in one of the first clinical trials, that scurvy could be treated and prevented with citrus fruit such as limes or lemons. Lind’s results were then largely ignored by the Royal Navy until the 1790s.  In 1857, the British Merchant Shipping Act required all ships of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy to provide a daily lime ration to sailors to prevent scurvy.  In American slang, British sailors, in particular, and Britons, in general, are still known as “limeys.”

So, happy birthday to Dr. Szent-Györgyi and let’s all have a squeeze of lemon or lime in our rum.