Scurvy and The Pathology of Exploration

In celebration of national pathology week we are delighted to be joined by Dr Edmund Joseph and Prof Ken Donaldson as they discuss the pathologies that blighted some of history’s most famous expeditions.

British history is rich with exploration, colonialisation and commerce, giving rise to the Age of sail (mid-1600s to mid-1800s) when Britain truly ‘ruled the waves’. Long sea voyages with large crews of hundreds of men were typical and this posed huge problems in providing nutrition over long periods at sea. The foremost pathology arising from long voyages was scurvy, which killed more men than storms, shipwreck and war during this time.

Scurvy remained an intractable problem until Scots physician James Lind carried out the first ‘clinical trial‘ in 1747 and showed that citrus fruit prevented scurvy.

This talk will introduce the background to scurvy as an occupational disease of sailors and the pathology of scurvy. We will also describe how it was likely a factor in the deaths during the Franklin Expedition, one member of whom, Harry Goodsir, worked in Surgeons Hall museum before leaving to join the expedition in 1845.

This talk will last approximately1 hour and the Wohl Pathology galleries will be open for ticket holders only between 6pm and 8pm.