Episode 54.5 Bonus! Scurvy - What it is, How to Cure it & Why Modern Society Keeps Bringing it Back

-

 Listen to "054.5 Bonus Scurvy - What it is, How to Cure it & Why Modern Society Keeps Bringing it Back" on Spreaker.

Link to the Episode:
Episode 54.5 Bonus! Scurvy - What it is, How to Cure it & Why Modern Society Keeps Bringing it Back

These pictures are what would happen if Bart Simpson – or Elementary School age children with a certain fascination with the grotesque and extreme were allowed to be in charge of 3rd grade Biology lessons.

Ewww!  Gross.
Eat your fruits, vegetables and definitely your cabbage!



The problem – then as now – being so sure of your conclusion that the new information is invisible to you, even as you write it down.


You can read this too!


Despite Lind talking himself out of lemons & oranges curing scurvy
the Admiralty has decided to put up heroic paintings of him

18th century satirical cartoon showing the impressment of sailors
*the hard way*
on the streets of London
(notice the Tower of London and a ship masts in the background) 



The Voyages of Capt. James Cook
Until he was killed in Hawaii
Notable for many things - but here important for his lower than
typical number of deaths from scurvy

Rose's Lime Juice
the lime juice of the Limey
and the mixer for ship board Grog - the Rum Tot


Cuy aka Guinea Pigs 
like humans - incapable of producing Vitamin C
&
the subject of many a 19th & 20th century biological experiment



the tiny little 17 atom molecule
that is responsible for all this trouble




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Episode 65 Pudding & Cream & Cake that is Not a Lie

-
Listen to "065 Cream & Pudding & Cake that is Not a Lie" on Spreaker. Link to the Episode:  Episode 65 Pudding & Cream & Cake that is Not a Lie 18th Century, pre-revolutionary cake was generally a heavy dense thing compared to our modern, airy baking powder assisted cakes.  The only leavening was yeast and eggs.  And sugar?  Expensive.  Cakes were definitely less sweet.  If you were not wealthy, or it wasn't a wedding, birth or a death,  molasses and maple syrup (more generally known as "maple molasses" in the 18th century) would stand in.  And these too would tend to make your cake more dense as well. It was also common for cakes to be only slightly sweetened and then studded with dried or sugared fruit - think fruit cake.  Either the dense bricky stuff of English descent - or the new Italian star of the modern American winter holiday scene, panettone 18th century cake American cakes were largely thick, moist things that were lightly sweetened.
Read more

Episode 61 - 18th Century North American Rice – A History

-
Image
Listen to "061 18th Century North American Rice - A History" on Spreaker.  Link to the Episode: Episode 61 Rice has Arrived & It is Boiled Rice comes to America at least three separate times.  The first time is in the end of the 17th and the start of the 18th century, when it becomes an economic force in South Carolina - and later Georgia. Unlike later rice, this rice is came most recently from Africa.  The export rice that will build family fortunes is an Oryza sativa  or Asian sourced variety, but it was a variety that was grown previously in Africa - by Africans.   But there was also Oryza glaberrima a rice of entirely African extraction.  Unlike the O. sativa  rice, it grows more like other cereal - simply in the dirt, instead of in rice paddies that must be transplanted, flooded and drained. Navigational Alchemy View the world like a compass and astrolabe only sailor.  As someone who recently felt proud of herself for being able to go a single kilometer without loo
Read more

Episode 64 Milk & Butter Money

-
Image
Listen to "064 Milk & Butter Money" on Spreaker. Link to the Episode: Episode 64 Milk & Butter Money The Dairy Maid arrives on the scene.  Unlike so many depictions of this or that type of colonial person or other, which tend to be overly idealized depictions, the representation of Dairy Maids is not too far off. She's going to be seen in a colonial dress (don't forget the cap or head wrap), and apron and carrying pails, hanging out with cows, or seated at a churn.  The main place they miss is giving her slim forearms and shoulders.  Between the milking,  the carrying and the churning, she would be a first pick for any arm-wrestling team.   Colonial Williamsburg did lots of the heavy lifting for me - and has excellent photographs of 18th century dairymaid dress , and the dairy out buildings - as well as longer explanations of how they functioned. Dairy House in Colonial Williamsburg Long eaves and slats - but no windows.  And a stone foundation. Dairy Cow and
Read more