Reconstructed data from the journals of James Lind describing his 1747 investigation of treatments for scurvy among sailors aboard HMS Salisbury. The data record the treatments administered to individual sailors, their vitamin C exposure, treatment duration, and outcomes.
Format
james_lind
A data frame containing reconstructed observations from James Lind's scurvy trial:
- Sailor_ID
Identifier for the sailor
- Group
Treatment group
- Treatment
Description of the treatment administered
- Vitamin_C
Daily vitamin C intake in mg
- Total_Vitamin_C
Total vitamin C intake during the treatment period, in mg
- Duration
Treatment duration in days
- Outcome_text
Text description of the treatment outcome
- Outcome
Numeric outcome value
- Diet
Diet during the treatment period
Details
In 1747, James Lind conducted a controlled trial aboard HMS Salisbury to investigate treatments for scurvy. Twelve sailors suffering from scurvy were divided into pairs and given different dietary and medicinal treatments for a period of two weeks. The treatments included cider, elixir vitriol, vinegar, seawater, nutmeg, and citrus fruits.
The trial is widely recognized as an early example of a controlled clinical experiment and is frequently used in discussions of the development of clinical trial methodology and evidence-based medicine.
The data in this dataset are reconstructed from Lind's journals and historical accounts of the trial. They are intended for statistical analysis, teaching, and methodological demonstrations. The reconstructed data should not be interpreted as a verbatim transcription of the original historical records.