John Smith recommended the use of lemon juice as a treatment for scurvy (1626)

James Lind is often credited with discovering or proving that citrus fruits are effective in preventing and treating scurvy. However, reports highlighting the benefits of oranges appeared more than two centuries before Lind’s (1753) treatise. Oranges were already indicated for scurvy in accounts from Vasco da Gama’s first voyage, and similar suggestions were recorded by Ronsseus, Hawkins, Pyrard, Woodall, Winthrop and many others before Lind’s treatise. In his instructions to seamen, John Smith suggested juice of lemons in 1626. The relevant passage from his text is reproduced in this document.