Final answer:
The authors' purpose in including the text 'Making History with Vitamin C' is to highlight the history of scurvy and its prevention through the early use of citrus fruits, emphasizing the role of empirical evidence and experiments in improving health practices, specifically within the British navy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The authors included the text 'Making History with Vitamin C' to discuss the historical significance of scurvy and its prevention through the discovery of the efficacy of citrus fruits, particularly the role of vitamin C. The text also highlights the clinical experiment conducted by James Lind, which proved the cure for scurvy before vitamins were actually discovered. By recounting this story, the authors aim to show how empirical evidence led to a change in naval practices, which significantly improved the health of sailors.
The inclusion is multi-faceted but principally aligns with options 2 and 4 from the student's query: to discuss the history of scurvy and to promote the use of Vitamin C as a preventive for scurvy. The authors combined elements such as the description of scurvy's impacts, the importance of experimental design in Lind's study, and the evolution of nutritional science to articulate the significance of vitamin C in historical and modern contexts.
The daily rationing of lime juice in the British navy and the subsequent nickname 'limeys' for British sailors serves as a historical example of nutritional policy based on empirical evidence from experiments, even before the chemical understanding of vitamins was established. Hence, the purpose of the text is not only informational but also illustrative of how empirical research can lead to significant practical applications in health and medicine.