Q. I need primary sources about the disease scurvy in the 1500s-1800s.

Try some of these sources out:

• Observations on the Nature and Cure of Calculus, Sea Scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, and Fever
  http://books.google.com/books?id=IFkSAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover (1793 – written by a British doctor)
  
  
• Observations on the scurvy : with a review of the opinions lately advanced on that disease, and a new theory defended, on the approved method of cure, and the induction of pneumatic chemistry : being an attempt to investigate that principle in recent vegetable matter, which, alone, has been found effectual in the treatment of this singular disease : and from thence to deduce more certain means of prevention than have been adopted hitherto (1792)
  https://archive.org/details/observationsonsc00trot
  
• Lind, James: An Essay on the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen, in the Royal Navy, 2 1762.
  http://archive.org/details/essayonmosteffec00lind.

• An Historical Account Of A New Method Of Treating The Scurvy at Sea: Containing Ten Cases, Which Shew that this Destructive Disease, May be Easily and Effectually Cured, Without the Aid of Fresh Vegetable Diet (1767)
  https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=HtFaAAAAcAAJ&rdid=book-HtFaAAAAcAAJ&rdot=1
  
  
• An account of the disease lately prevalent at the General Penitentiary (1825)
  https://archive.org/details/accountofdisease00lath
  
  
• Curran. Observations on scurvy as it has lately appeared throughout Ireland, and in several parts of Great Britain. Dublin Q J Med Sci [ns], 4; 1847. p. 83–130.
  http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/213/art%253A10.1007%252FBF02961638.pdf?auth66=1413145243_98a0142df132f8b80c68eefef9f8a779&ext=.pdf
  
  
• Scelera aquarum, or, A supplement to Mr. Graunt on the bills of mortality: shewing as well the causes, as encrease, of the London, Parisian, and Amsterdam scorbute with all its attendants : demonstrating the locality of the said causes and how they result from morbifick salts which abound in the strata of the earth and stagnate waters round those three cities - PRIMARY SOURCE booklet written a doctor, 1701
  http://olc1.ohiolink.edu/record=b21335055~S0
  *This is on microfilm (which are kind of like film negatives). The Walsh library has a machine that can read microfilm.

• A Short Narrative of the Second Voyage of the "Prince Albert" - That monograph, written in 1853, details the hardships endured on an Arctic expedition.

  “Within the last few days we had suffered so severely from scurvy, which had rendered us morbidly sensitive to cold and bodily fatigue, that although now only a day’s journey from Whaler Point, we gladly availed ourselves of the opportunity which the accidental discovery of the depot afforded, to take a day or two’s rest before proceeding further….we remained at Whaler Point until the 27^th, making a free use of the lime juice, cranberries, vegetables, and, in fact of every anti scorbutic we found…”

• A Treatise on the Scurvy: In Three Parts, Containing an Inquiry Into the Nature, Causes, an Cure, of that Disease, Together with a Critical and Chronological View of what Has Been Published on the Subject (1772)
  https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=T1OT3tYmh5wC&rdid=book-T1OT3tYmh5wC&rdot=1
  
  *This is a primary source because it is a book written by doctors regarding scurvy at the time of publication (1772). It can be downloaded for free online if you have a Google Account.

• Art! One thing many history students sometimes forget is that artwork and photography are primary sources. We have access to a database called ARTstor. You can do a search for scurvy and one painting does come up, a watercolor called "Dr Graham's Bathing Establishment" (no date, but artist lived between 1756-1827) depicting people with several ailments including scurvy.

Need something more? Contact History Liaison Librarian Katie Hutchison at 330.244.4968 or khutchison@walsh.edu.