SCURVY How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail

During the eighteenth century, medicine had advanced little from the Dark Ages; there were few cures for anything. Bown's fascinating biography of that maritime age tells of two doctors and Captain James Cook--all sailing against prevailing winds--and how their contributions led to a cure for a common mariners--disease of the time, scurvy. The name of the preventive and remedy --ascorbic acid--comes from the outdated word "antiscorbutic." With the voice of a storyteller, Dan Cashman tells of the unsanitary conditions of life at sea; details such as weevils in sailors' biscuits and corpses stored in French ships' bilges abound. To humorous advantage, Cashman uses the same foreign accent for all languages, including his Napoleonic quotes. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 04]