Importance of Looking for What is Absent

The cure for scurvy was found by identifying what was missing, not what was present.

Scurvy was lethal at the point of killing 50%+ of the crew in long sea voyages. This led to lots of people trying to find a cause by analyzing what sailors were consuming, with little effect. James Lind, a Scottish physician, was treating sailors in the 18th century suffering from scurvy and decided to look for what was absent from their diet instead.

Lind identified that sailors were not eating fresh fruits and vegetables. After controlled experiments, he concluded that introducing oranges and lemons would make the patients recover faster. Impressive, given that only 150 years later, we would discover Vitamin C and realize that scurvy was caused by its absence.

It is easy to overfocus on what is present in our lives, but sometimes we should look at what is missing instead. This a good reminder to not forget to ask what is missing.

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