Books Used:

Arno Karlen, Napoleon's Glands and other Ventures in Biohistory: Boston, Little, Brown and Co. 1984

Chas. T. Gregg, Plague: An Ancient Disease in the 20th Century, (revised ed.), Albuquerque: U of NM Press

Robt. S. Gottfried, The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe, NY: Free Press, 1983

John H. Powell, Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadi in 1793, NY: Time, 1965

Chas. L. Mee, Jr., "How a Mysterious Disease Laid Low Europe's Masses" Smithsonian, Feb. 1990

Arno Karlen (Nap's Glds 147)

"We and our parasites are constantly readapting to each other in an effort to survive"

"An epidemic id an argument in the course of an indissolveable marriage."

Definitions:

Endemic: (Latin: en + demos "in the people")
Organisms living with in or indigenous to a given population.

Epidemic: (Gr: "staying in one place; among the people)
Living on them as a curse causing illness possibly death temporary prevalence of a disease in a specific locality

Pandemic: (Gr: pan + demos "all the people")
epidemic that has spread over much of the world, recurring in waves

Plague: (Latin: plaga - "blow" or "wound") 1)epidemic disease or high mortality
2) epidemic caused by Yersima pestis specifically
3) any widespread affliction, calamity of evil

Two concepts to explain ecological interplay of man, rat and flea

Zoonosis: a human disease caused by a germ previously at home in another species

Symbiosis: (or Parasitism) germ view of survival, either by being in parasitic or symbiotic relationship with animal host

Plague's normal state is infection of small animals: field mice, gerbils, squirrels, marmots, guinea pigs, hamsters, prairie dogs, etc.

Periodically plague moves from state of being "enzootic" (in the animals) to "epizootic" (in them as a curse)

An epizootic usually precedes an epidemic in humans.

When an epidemic spreads over much of the world it becomes known as a "pandemic' i.e. involving everyone.

Human Diseases Shared With Animals:

65 diseases shared with dogs
50 diseases shared with cattle
46 diseases shared with sheep and goats
42 diseases shared with pigs
35 diseases shared with horses
32 diseases shared with rats and mice
26 diseases shared with poultry

Yersinia Pestis: Plague Bacterium

Bacteria are among the most ancient of living creatures. At first, probably lived in the sea and soil, then adapted to living on and in creatures larger than themselves, some kept adapting to live on successive organisms,

When parasite first moves to a new host it multiplies quickly, unhindered by immune reactions. It may even kill the host and be left with no home. Or if host develops strong immune reaction can fight off or kill the parasite.

Symbiosis: Ideal Relationship Between Parasite and Host

Symbiosis or mutual tolerance is best relationship between parasite and host. This may mean adapting to a particular organ or tissue.
EX: bacteria causing meningitis lives peacefully in the human throat - only if they reach the tissue lining the brain or spinal chord do they become deadly. Bacteria in the colon aid in digestion; that is why when people take antibiotics they can get diarrhea unless they replace these bacilli with active yogurt. If these bacilli reach urethra or bladder however they can cause persistent and painful cystitis.

Process of Adaptation

Adaptation of parasite to new tissues takes a long time which is why a parasite in a new host can take a high death toll. For EX when Native Americans were first exposed to European diseases, their numbers were decimated. In time their survivors and descendants developed immune defenses and once lethal ills became "endemic": i.e. present in everyone but limited in severity and occurring most often in childhood.

TB bacillus one of the oldest species on earth. It was endemic in cattle when they were domesticated 10,000 years ago. Then bacillus moved to humans. At first TB was violent, often deadly disease attacking almost any part of the body. (skeletons form ancient Egypt and Peru show severe spinal tuberculosis) Over time TB adapted to human lungs and then became less acute (not only because of antibiotics) Now many healthy people show immune reactions to TB even though they heave never had symptoms. They may be adapting to each other.

Theorized Origins of Human Plague:

Plague bacillus probably lived in small animals for hundreds of thousands of years before the emergence of man.

first Human cases probably occurred when humans began to vary their diet by catching small game. Sick animals would be easier to catch so captors may have gotten more than they bargained for.

When humans began to live in first agricultural communities (@ 10,000 B.C.) were then subject to true epidemics because of increased population density. Plague may have decimated some early settlements but we have no physical evidence.

First Sign of Black Death = Dead Rats

Chinese poet in 1792 expressed the relationship of epizootics in rats and epidemics in humans:

"Few days following the death of rats, men pass away like falling walls. Deaths in the day are numberless, the heavy sun is covered with somber clouds."

Other EX: 1873 plague epidemic in India was accompanied by large number of dead rats. In 1894 when Dr. Mary Miles reported on Canton epidemic she mentioned widespread death of rats in houses of plague victims.

Recorded History of Plagues

Great plagues have been recorded for at least 4,000 years beginning with ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Babylonians and Chinese.

First recorded epidemic in 1500 BC by the Egyptians.
Pandemic in Athens 430 BC

Classical World:
Second through Sixth Century AD three new lethal infections emerged:
165-180 AD Smallpox struck Italy, killing 1/4 to 1/3 Italy's population
251-260 Autonine plague probably measles killed 5000 a day in Rome
541 Yersinia Pestis plague

That the smallpox and measles viruses are transmitted by the respiratory system was not distinguished until the 16th century.

Black Death or Bubonic Plague or Justinian's Plague (only one form of the disease) First known devastation of Europe: 542-548

Three kinds of plague: (yersinia pestis)

Bubonic - causes subcutaneous hemorrhages called baboe incubation time up to six days "danse macabre" associated with Black Death kills 50 - 60%

Pneumonia - Airborne transmission from human to human by coughing 2 -3 days incubation 95 -100% fatality

Septicemia - Insect borne, rash within hours of infection death within a day. 100% fatal Transmitted by human flea or body louse.

Yersinia Pestis: Plague
Bacterial strains with varying toxicity to humans, always highly lethal.
Lives in digestive tract of fleas (or humans and rats)
How it is transmitted: bacilli multiply wildly in flea's stomach causing blockage, threatening flea with starvation. This blocked flea while feeding on a rat or human regurgitates large quantities of bacilli into its host. (Plague cannot pass through healthy skin, only via break in skin.)


Three Pandemics of Black Plague
First of three great pandemics region of Roman emperor Justinian I. c 531 AD
Threatening sign: Portent: a great comet now known to be Haley's lit the night sky for 20 days in 531 Plague followed quickly in four months killed 200,000 people in Constantinople alone. then sliced through Europe Ireland Denmark Arabia and perhaps beyond. Became pandemic recurring in cycles of q0 to 24 years for two centuries ending in the ;ate 8th century Total Estimated loss 50 - 60% of the population

Second Pandemic: 14th Century

First pandemic took two centuries to disappear and world was free of widespread plague for 600 years - typical pattern

Most important infectious disease during this period
Leprosy
Portents of a Second Pandemic:
Portents series of disasters struck China in 1333 droughts floods earthquakes clouds of locust
then second plague exploded in Central Asia

Europe 1347
Probably started in Crimea and spread to Scandinavia Russia India China and Africa.

Toll of Plague

In crowded Avignion it was said 400 died daily; 7000 houses vacated by death were shut up; a single graveyard received 11,000 corpses in 6 weeks; half the city's inhabitants died including 1/3 of the cardinals and 70 lesser prelates.


Boccaccio on Physicians:

"These maladies seem to set entirely at naught both the art of the physician and the virtues if the psychic; indeed, whether it was that the disorder was of a nature to defy such treatment or that the physicians were at fault . . . almost all died"

Superstition re Causes of Plague

In 1348 when Black Death reached Paris, Philip VI order medical faculty of U of Paris to determine the cause their report: On March 3, 1345 at 1:00 PM a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars occurred in the House of Aquarius. Saturn - Mars conjunction portends death/destruction; Mars - Jupiter dispersed pestilence in air Jupiter being warm and humid drew up the water and evil vapors from earth, which Mars being hot and dry then kindled into infective fire."

Superstition re Avoiding Black Plague:
Avoid a;; poultry, fatty meats and olive oil
don't sleep past dawn
avoid baths as dangerous and sexual intercourse as possibly fatal
Smithsonian article
Wash face and feet sprinkle with rosewater and vinegar
eat figs, rhubarb onions leeks garlic myrrh saffron and pepper
roast meat not boiled
no hard boiled eggs
no deserts
avoid exercise
sleep first on right side then on left.

Folklore of Plague Origins
In
Vienna plague was said to be carried by the pest Jungfrau ("Plague Maiden")

A blue flame emerging from the mouths of the dead

In Lithuania Plague was believed to be carried by a young woman who waved a red scarf through the door or window of home to infect its
inhabitants

Folklore Saints of Protection

Many believed swellings of plague = wounds from arrows shot by God's avenging angels.

Saint Sebastian
Saint Roch

More on Origins
Ancient view dating from Hippocrates - Plague came from poisonous clouds "miasmas" from swamps battlefields or graveyards.
Popular defense form miasmas was running away Latin warning Fuge cito vade longe rede tarde flee quickly go far return slowly

Other protections against plague;
staying inside with windows and doors shut
interposing suitable fumes (tobacco smoke, vinegar latrine odors
wearing of special leather suits by doctors equipped with beaks containing aromatic spices
use of sweet-smelling elixirs garlands of flowers or plague waters first eau de cologne

Cultural Monuments to Plague
Poem in Mother Goose
Ring a ring of rosies
pocket full of posies
Achoo Achoo
All fall down

Origin of the term "Quarantine"
from Latin "quaranta giorni" or forty days in 14 century Yugoslavia voted to impose isolation of travelers or ships from plague regions for forty days








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