Cook, Captain James

The first report on use of Amanita muscaria mushrooms among Siberian tribesmen didn t appear until 1730. Forty-one years later, a Swedish botanist accompanying Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the... 

AO/FRS - scavenges DPPH, nitrite (NO -), OH, 02 02-, ONOO- regenerates a-Tocopherol from a-Tocopheryl radical antiageing nutriceutical vitamin C-deficiency disease scurvy cured by lime juice — found by Dr James Lind promoted by Captain James Cook in British navy (18th century) — hence limeys Dr Lind befriended poet Percy Shelley was thence the source for Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecrafi Shelley... 

Captain James Cook, the explorer, was one of the first scientists to study the oceans natural history. A surge in scientific studies took place in the seventeenth century, during which scientists fried for the fist time to combine the scientific method with sailors knowledge. 

Captain James Cook was the first person to circumnavigate Antarctica between 1772 and 1775 during his three voyages of exploration into the Pacific Ocean (Beaglehole 1955,1961,1962,1967 Bellec2000). On January 30, 1774, Captain Cook reached a point near the coast of West Antarctica at 71°10 S, 106°54 W. 

Noni (Morinda citrifolid) is a tree native to Southeast Asia. Its seeds were carried by ocean currents, birds and ancient seafarers to most of the Pacific islands, so today it is found in a huge area (Fig. 3.31). Polynesian cultures have used it for healing since ancient times, and Captain James Cook (1728-1779) was the first to bring information about noni to Europe. Traditional healing practices rely mostly on the leaves, but medical apphcation of the bark, root and unripe fruit has also been documented. Noni has been applied externally to treat skin abnormalities, cuts or other wounds. The taste of ripe fruit is not very pleasant and island dwellers only eat it if there is little other choice. 

Ciguatera poisoning was first reported by Peter Martyr, historian of the Americas, in the West Indies (Martyr 1555). Spanish sailors were also reported to have ciguatera as early as 1606 in the Pacific (Helfrich 1964). The famous voyager Captain James Cook reported an outbreak in the South Pacific in 1774 symptoms coincide with those evident today (Cook 1777). 

Edward Jenner, the English physician who developed the first vaccine against smallpox, refused an offer by Captain James Cook of the HMS Endeavour to accompany the captain on his next trip to Pacific islands during the 1770 s. 

The great explorer Captain James Cook was another victim of TTX. In September 1774, he and two of his crew ate some puffer fish and fed the remains to the pigs on board ship. The humans survived the extraordinary weakness and numbness but the pigs did not, probably because the pigs had eaten the more toxic parts of the fish. 

Fig. 1.2 James Weddell (1787-1834) and Matthew Brisbane were hunting seals in the South Shetland and South Orkney Islands in 1823 when they turned their ships south and sailed into a large embayment in the land mass of Antarctica now known as the Weddell Sea. They reached a point even farther south than Captain Cook when they decided to turn back. They were fortunate to have penetrated this far into the Weddell Sea and to have escaped unhurt because the pack ice in the Weddell Sea is notorious for trapping ships (Photo by the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, used here with permission)...

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