Tag: James Cook
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Rapamycin: The “fountain of youth” from Easter Island?
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Moais at the Rano Raraku volcano quarry. Photo by Rivi, 2006, on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. “We know more about the movement of the celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” – Leonardo DaVinci In November 1964, the Canadian naval vessel HMCS Cape Scott left Halifax, Nova Scotia, to…
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“All hands to dance and skylark!” – Shipboard dancing in the British Navy
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia “We were all hearty seamen, no cold did we fear;And we have from all sickness entirely kept clear;Thanks be to the Captain he has proved so good;Amongst all the Islands to give us fresh food.”1,2– William Perry, surgeon’s mate on H.M.S. Resolution, 1775 Lieutenant James Cook (1728–1779) is known as a…
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Musical evenings on HMS Bounty
Stewart Justman Missoula, Montana, United States The mutineers turning Bligh and his crew from the Bounty, 29th April 1789. Illustration by Robert Dodd. 1790. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Dispatched to Tahiti in 1787 to gather breadfruit trees to be transplanted to the West Indies, HMS Bounty was a small ship with every possible…
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Remembrance of things past
JMS Pearce Hull, England, United Kingdom Photo by Anita Jankovic on Unsplash In these troubled times imposed by Covid-19, much attention has been paid to depression, stress, and complaints of enforced isolation and of longing for the old days—the “normal times.” In this and in other contexts, nostalgia is regarded as a normal sentiment…
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Scurvy before James Lind
JMS Pearce Hull, England, United Kingdom Captain James Cook (1728-1779). Nathaniel Dance. BHC2628 Cures of disease are still relatively uncommon. Scurvy is an example of a disease well recognized but whose cause eluded doctors for centuries until an empirical curative remedy and later a specific cause were discovered. In more recent times Koch’s discovery…