Final answer:
Scurvy plagued sailors for hundreds of years before the addition of ascorbic acid to their diet. Lind's scurvy experiment showed that cider, which contains ascorbic acid, helped alleviate scurvy symptoms.
Step-by-step explanation:
Sailors were plagued by scurvy for hundreds of years before the addition of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to their diet. Scurvy is a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, which is essential for the synthesis of collagen in the body. Collagen is important for the health of connective tissues, including blood vessels. When sailors were deprived of fresh fruits and vegetables, which are rich in vitamin C, they developed scurvy.
In Lind's scurvy experiment, he observed that sailors who drank cider had some improvement in their scurvy symptoms. This is because cider contains a small amount of ascorbic acid, which helps alleviate the vitamin C deficiency. Factors other than diet that could have potentially affected the outcome of the experiment include the sailors' overall health, living conditions, and exposure to other diseases.