Etiology time, and often lacked fresh fruit and vegetables. Without knowing the precise cause, Captain James Cook suspected scurvy was caused by the lack of vegetables in the diet. Based on his suspicion, he forced his crew to eat sauerkraut, a cabbage preparation, every day, and based upon the positive outcomes, he inferred that it prevented scurvy, even though he did not know precisely why. It took about another two hundred years to discover the precise etiology: the lack of vitamin C in a sailor's diet. An etiological myth, or origin myth, is a myth intended to explain the origins of
Cochlearia In the first century A.D. Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) writes in his "Naturalis Historia (Natural History)," about a disease suffered by Roman soldiers in Germany. Their symptoms resemble those of scurvy, and Pliny recommends a "Herba britannica", which has been suggested to be scurvy-grass. Scurvy-grass was frequently eaten in the past by sailors suffering from scurvy after returning from long voyages. The leaves are rich in vitamin C, which cures this deficiency disease resulting from a lack of fresh vegetables in the diet. The Rev. George Moore recorded the purchase of "a pint of scurvey-grasse" for 1 s in