biomedicalephemera reblogged
thechirurgeonsapprentice-deacti
Episode 2 of Under The Knife - all about the history of bubonic plague and the terrifying mask which has come to symbolize the disease.
biomedicalephemera reblogged
Pink Beryl and Emerald Crystals
Emerald is actually a member of the beryl family of gemstones (including aquamarine, heliodor, red beryl, and others), but with a higher number of impurities (known as inclusions), and colored various shades of green by trace amounts of chromium.
While dozens of questionable cures and wards for the plague are known, the royalty of both Europe and Byzantium believed that crushed emerald was the surest ward, and would save them from any plague-related death. This belief went so far as to lead the apothecaries and physicians of sixteenth-century England to release a declaration stating that the inefficacy of gems in both curing and warding the plague was due to improper identification and preparation of gems prescribed, not because the “cure” was simply a ploy on the nobility’s belief that the more expensive something was, the better it was.
A Book of Precious Stones. Julius Wodiska, 1909.
Pink Beryl and Emerald Crystals
Emerald is actually a member of the beryl family of gemstones (including aquamarine, heliodor, red beryl, and others), but with a higher number of impurities (known as inclusions), and colored various shades of green by trace amounts of chromium.
While dozens of questionable cures and wards for the plague are known, the royalty of both Europe and Byzantium believed that crushed emerald was the surest ward, and would save them from any plague-related death. This belief went so far as to lead the apothecaries and physicians of sixteenth-century England to release a declaration stating that the inefficacy of gems in both curing and warding the plague was due to improper identification and preparation of gems prescribed, not because the "cure" was simply a ploy on the nobility's belief that the more expensive something was, the better it was.
A Book of Precious Stones. Julius Wodiska, 1909.
Bubonic Plague - Yersinia pestis
Yersinia pestis is always a fun little organism to see under the microscope. It's a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria, but it looks more like a safety-pin than a "rod" because of the natural bi-polar staining pattern of the organism. The species was found to be the causative agent of bubonic plague during an 1894 epidemic in Hong Kong, by Alexandre Yersin. Until 1967, however, it was categorized with the Pasteurella genus, and was known as Pasteurella pestis.
There are several strains of Y. pestis, and three different manifestations of the plague:
- Bubonic plague - Incubation period of 2-6 days with few symptoms, while bacteria multiply within lymph nodes. Sudden fever and headache at end of incubation period, with complete loss of energy. The characteristic buboes (lymph swellings) appear at this point, as the lymph nodes swell to enormous proportions thanks to the bacteria within them. The inguinal (groin) nodes generally are the first to show signs of infection.
- Septicemic plague - Same bacteria, different strain of Y. pestis, and way worse. From what we know, primary septicemic plague is generally caused by one unique strain, or by any strain in immuno-compromised patients. When the other manifestations of the disease cause overwhelming sepsis prior to death, this is known as secondary septicemic plague. Primary septicemic plague is characterized by hypotension, shock, hepatosplenomegaly (swollen spleen and liver), and death. Sometimes very few or even no outward symptoms develop before the patient is killed by the bacteria's internal effects.
- Pneumonic plague - Caused by direct inhalation of bacteria (often person-to-person), with initial site of infection being the lungs. Different strains have different degrees of ability to transfer in this manner, but it generally requires prolonged contact with infected persons or animals. Causes tracheal and bronchial hemorrhaging, large amounts of alveolar exudate, congestion of the lungs, and pleural edema. Often quickly spreads to other organs, much like bubonic plague.
While all three manifestations of the disease can be deadly, the incidence of death is greatly reduced by IV antibiotics, and thanks to modern sanitation standards, outbreaks in developed countries are unheard of.
Still, Yersinia pestis isn't, and probably never will be, completely exterminated. Wild animals such as rodents, prairie dogs, and some marsupials and primates are known to both be affected by and serve as reservoirs for the bacteria. This means that even if humans somehow stopped acquiring the plague for a while, the bacteria itself would still be around, and we would still be able to contract it.
Interestingly, a 2011 study in the journal Nature showed that the strain of Y. pestis which caused the Black Death in both the 1st century C.E. and the early Middle Ages may no longer be extant. The genome of the bacteria analyzed from victims of those plagues showed a more ancient form of Y. pestis that lacked a number of the mutations that exist in current-day strains, which are known to have caused all epidemics beyond the Renaissance.
Have I gone on about the plague enough? If not, check out way more information than you'll ever use about the pathogen at CIDRAP Bioterrorism and PLoS Pathogens!
Images:
- Bacillus of Bubonic Plague - Elementary Bacteriology and Protozoology, for the use of Nurses. Herbert Fox, 1919.
- Swelling of inguinal bubo in U.S. soldier - From the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ca. 1970.
- Plague victims being blessed by priest - Omne Bonum. James le Palmer, 1360.
- Mass grave of plague victims- From Martiques, France, dated to the last pandemic of plague in Europe, between 1720 and 1722.
- Plague Riot of Moscow - Depicts the rioting during and after the 1770s Moscow epidemic.
Slightly pretentious question: What is your opinion on the revisionist theories of the Black Death? Do you follow the traditional school of thought that it was caused by yersinia pestis, or do you find one of the suggested alternatives more convincing?
It seems a bit unlikely that it was caused by a disease that was unrelated to Y. pestis (given the symptomology), but I find the evidence pointing towards a combination of both pneumonic plague and bubonic plague more convincing than solely Y. pestis, especially given that you need fleas to transmit that one, and it moved north at a rate of 5 miles a day, which is ridiculous, given that they were limited to walking or horses for transport and most people never went beyond 10 miles away from where they were born.
A bit less likely, at least to me, but still possible, would be something like what happened to E. coli to form the deadly strain O157:H7 - bacteriophage infection of a less dangerous strain of bacteria, causing it to go all *KABLAM EUROPE DEAD*.
I don't think that it was a completely different disease that subsequently died out like some mavericks propose. I understand why a theory like that would be proposed for something like the European Sweating Sickness of the 16th century; it was almost completely different from anything seen before or since. But the Black Death presented itself in a way that strongly resembles two diseases that we know a fair amount about, and I lean towards the theory with more evidence.
Uniforms worn while researching plague bacteria.
These plague researchers were working with the bacillus in the Philippines in 1912. The Third Pandemic was the last major pandemic of plague, which began in Yunnan Province in China, in 1855. It was considered an active pandemic by the World Health Organization until 1959, when cases dropped below 200/year.
Unlike the Black Death, which is believed to have been at least equal parts pneumonic plague and bubonic plague (though pneumonic contributed to more deaths), the Third Pandemic was mostly bubonic plague (far less deadly, though still dangerous and highly virulent). Despite this, it still contributed to over 12 million deaths in China and India alone, and spread to all inhabited continents.
Amazing anatomist or not...
Thomas Willis was still the one who brought up the live frog folk remedy for the plague and said that while he'd had no success with it, others had, and it was something to try.
Scientific method, something this man was not aware of. I mean, ok, sure, it wasn't even established yet. But still. Frogs?! No. Boils do not need frogs. Nor do buboes.
