Can you imagine this? The skin starts to break. Blood blisters develops into full-scale ulcers and the gums putrefy and become black. Broken bones rebreak and old wounds open... Sounds like a page from a horror movie but that's what happen when the body can no longer produce collagen due to a lack of vitamin C . Scurvy indeed is a scourge especially of seafarers in the past. Vasco da Gama lost two thirds of his crew to the disease while on an expedition to India in 1499 and Magellan lost more than 80 per cent while crossing the Pacific in 1520. To stave off the disease, sailing ships loaded up on fruits, I read; just like during the MCO when my niece bought so many fruits that it filled a table and looked like a mini fruit stall. But, of course, that has nothing to do with going out on an expedition and trying to solve the problem of scurvy. It's more about feeding a family!
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