 Since antiquity in various parts of the world, and since the 17th century in England, it had been known that citrus fruit had an antiscorbutic effect, when John Woodall (1570–1643), an English military surgeon of the British East India Company recommended them but their use did not become widespread.Although Lind was not the first to suggest citrus fruit as a cure for scurvy, he was the first to study their effect by a systematic experiment in 1747.It ranks as one of the first reported, controlled, clinical experiments in the history of medicine, particularly for its use of control groups.