历史与人物idlewords.com编辑精选
斯科特与坏血病：治愈方法如何失传
Scott and Scurvy: How the cure for scurvy was lost
2010 — 2018，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这篇经典长文讲述坏血病治疗方法的离奇失传：18世纪英国海军已发现柠檬汁能治愈坏血病，但到19世纪后期，随着科学理论更新，这一有效疗法反而被抛弃，导致斯科特南极探险队等付出惨痛代价。文章借此展示了归纳法的问题，以及一个领域的进步如何导致另一个领域的倒退。
为什么经久不衰：它揭示了一个深刻教训：即使'科学共识'也可能丢失正确答案，提醒我们审视当下那些可能同样建立在错误理论上的认知。
HN 评论精选
历史上正确的实践常依附于错误的理论，理论被推翻时有效做法也随之丢失
一个领域的进步导致另一个领域倒退，这并非孤例。罗马人曾认为瘟疫由'恶灵'引起——恶灵会从病人或死者身上跳到健康人身上——因此他们隔离病患、焚烧尸体，甚至用瘟疫尸体做生物武器。后来人们抛弃了恶灵理论，改信'自然发生说'，直到巴斯德时代才发现罗马人90%是对的。
yummyfajitas查看英文原文
But in the second half of the nineteenth century, the cure for scurvy was lost. The story of how this happened is a striking demonstration of the problem of induction, and how progress in one field of study can lead to unintended steps backward in another. This isn't the only time progress in one field leads to steps backward in another. Once upon a time, the Romans knew the cause of plague: evil spirits. Evil spirits lived in the bodies of the living and the dead, but would occasionally jump from a sick person to a healthy person The health person would become sick, and further spread evil spirits. The Romans knew how to prevent the spread of evil spirits: isolate the sick and the dead, and even burn the bodies. They even weaponized it, using the bodies of those that died of plague as a biological weapon. Once we learned that evil spirits don't exist, we threw away this theory of disease. Instead, we believed that plague (much like flies, mold and other such unpleasantness) was spontaneously generated in matter. It wasn't until much Pasteur that we discovered the Romans were 90% correct.
点出文章颠覆了关于坏血病治愈史的普遍误解
人人都知道青柠汁能治坏血病、英国海军几个世纪前就搞明白了——但和大多数'人人都知道'的事一样，这 largely 是错的。感谢分享，读来非常精彩。
thristian查看英文原文
Everybody knows that lime juice cures scurvy, and that the English navy figured out the whole thing centuries ago, and like most things "everybody knows", it's largely wrong. Thanks for submitting this - it was a fascinating read.
文章最发人深省之处是引导读者反思当代的'集体无知'
很棒的文章，尤其喜欢结尾的总结：作者问我们今天面临的一些问题，是否也会因为某种无知而同样存在，并在60年后被后人诟病。
AdeptusAquinas查看英文原文
Great article :) Particularly the summary where the author asks whether issues we have now might be similarly due to ignorance that we will condemn in 60 years.
补充对比：阿蒙森靠务实饮食选择成功避免了坏血病
文章没提到另一位南极探险家阿蒙森，他同样担心坏血病，但成功预防了它：他准备了海豹肉，以及加入了蔬菜和燕麦的改良版干粮 pemmican。
cardiffspaceman查看英文原文
The article doesn't mention the "other" South Pole explorer who worried about scurvy, but prevented it. Roald Amundsen arranged for seal meat and a version of pemmican that had vegatables and oatmeal[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%27s_South_Pole_expedition#Transport,_equipment_and_supplies
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