Description of scurvy by Echtius (1541)

In the 16th century, four European authors described the symptoms of scurvy in such a detail that the disease can be recognized as the disease we currently classify as scurvy: Echtius (1541), Olaus Magnus (1555), Ronsseus (1564), and Wierus (1567). Since these four texts are among the early unambiguous descriptions of scurvy, they have substantial historical relevance. All these texts were originally published in Latin. There are English translations of the sections of scurvy from the Olaus Magnus text. James Lind wrote English summaries of the texts of the three other authors. This document gives a brief background and a copy of Lind’s summary of Echtius (1541) text on scurvy.