The British navy’s directive to sailors in 1795 that they eat citrus fruit daily was largely a result of a study by James Lind. Lind, who is referred to as the “father of naval surgery,” was the first to relate a disease to a dietary deficiency. Lind discovered that oranges and lemons could cure people of scurvy, which is caused by a lack of vitamin C. In 1747, Lind began his famous experiment on the treatment of scurvy during a voyage on the H.M.S. Salisbury by controlling the diets of 12 sailors who developed the disease. He found that the sailors who were given doses of citrus fruit were cured of the disease within a week. Lind’s report, "A Treatise of the Scurvy," was published six years later—on May 25, 1753.

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