James Lind
1716-1794

Born in Edinburgh, in 1731 he registered as an apprentice at the College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and after eight years began serving as a naval surgeon in the Mediterranean. Until 1748 he was in action at sea off Guinea and the West Indies, although most of his time was spent patrolling the English Channel during the War of Austrian Succession (1740-48). In 1747, while serving in the Channel on H.M.S. Salisbury, he carried out his experiments on scurvy, the symptoms of which included loose teeth, bleeding gums and haemorrhages. BBC.

Return To Scottish Physicians