IN 1740, Commodore George Anson left Portsmouth with seven ships and nearly 2,000 men. He returned four years later with less than 600.

Only four were killed by the enemy. The rest died not as the result of war, weather or mis-navigation, but of scurvy.

Limeys is the dramatic history of Dr James Lind's heroic efforts to find a cure for this "dreaded disease" in the face of the corrosive patronage and establishment antipathy of the times.

In the three centuries prior to 1800, it has been estimated that scurvy killed at least two million sailors.

In 1747, Lind, a Scottish naval surgeon, conducted the first practical medical research to find a cure. He recommended lemons, oranges and their juice, but it wasn't until 1795, when court physician Gilbert Blane championed Lind's work, were the Sea Lords persuaded to act.

From sailors, citrus fruits and "Limeys" to the birth of Rose's lime juice cordial -- the world's first soft drink -- this book tells the extraordinary, graphic and compelling story of the epic quest to conquer one of mankind's most terrible diseases.

Published by Sutton at £14.99.