Religious confessions and the sciences in the sixteenth century

side-effects of the hazardous cure-intense salivation, foul breath, slurred speech and impaired vision etc.-without demonstrating an understanding of how nineteenth-century practitioners perceived that mercury actually acted upon the disease itself (pp. 57-60). However, the rest of Chapter 3 fares better in this respect, not only in enumerating the different herbal and chemical remedies that surgeons used aboard ship, but in generally explaining the nature of their action. 'Batting Scurvy', which remained a problem whenever fresh rations ran out, wins and deserves a chapter of its own. However, for the most part, this is not a book that contributes much that is new to our understanding of sea surgeons' medical practice; it is, rather, a fine testament to a historian who writes accessibly and clearly loves her subject.