The Answer was a Lemon

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 131, 26 December 1941, Page 5

The Answer was a Lemon

HERE is a story which shows how the addition of only one item to the diet made all the difference to the health of a British garrison, and incidentally kept the Rock of Gibraltar in British hands. The Great Siege of Gibraltar began on June 21 in the year 1779, when French and. Spanish warships instituted a blockade and endeavoured to starve the

defenders into submission. Towards the end of a year, provisions began to run short, and fresh fruit and vegetables were practically unobtainable. The result was that a hideous disease broke out in the Garrison. The disease was scurvy, which is caused, as we know to-day, by a lack of Vitamin C in the diet Scores of men died every week, and for a time it looked as

though the Garrison would be defeated . . . not by the human enemy, for they could make little impres-sion-but by disease, Then came good fortune. A taid was made on a passing convoy, and among the ships captured was one loaded with lemons. The Garrison had never: :eard of Vitamin C, but those lemons were chock-full of just that-and the result was immediate. The scurvy was stopped in a miraculous manner. Not only stopped, but no further cases developed; and a quantity of the lemon juice was preserved and lasted for the remainder of the siege, preventing any further. outbreaks.-(From a recent Health Talk from 2ZB by C. G. Scrimgeour, Controller of the Commercial Broadcasting Service.)