In the news and popular culture it seems as if science is always coming up short. Climate change and pollution corrupt our environment. We live under the threat of horrible diseases such as cancer, AIDS and the latest doomsday flu. It would seem that, no matter how far we come, we are powerless to step back from the brink of catastrophe.
In that light, it’s comforting to know that there are some things we have fully saved ourselves from. There are many horrifying afflictions which seemed as unavoidable in the past as cancer does today. When we look back on historical conditions such as the two outlined below, it reminds us that nothing is insurmountable.
Ergotism (St. Anthony’s fire)
Ergotism was a disease that frequently broke out in medieval Europe. Its sufferers would experience vivid hallucinations and horrible pain, while their limbs blackened and dropped off. Since the visual effect was such that it looked as if these people were being burned, the condition was called St. Anthony’s fire. In one French epidemic in 945AD, 40,000 people died this way.
St. Anthony The Great, patron saint of ergotism. Note the hands and feet. Image: APSnet
While witchcraft was largely blamed in medieval times, the true culprit was a fungus, the rye ergot, Claviceps purpurea. Rye ergot grows on rye kernels and so, if disregarded, makes it into rye bread.
Rye ergot produces a toxin, ergotamine, which produces the effects of St. Anthony’s fire. Ergotamine is a precursor to LSD. It shares its hallucinogenic properties but also acts to constrict blood flow, resulting in the dry gangrene which medieval people interpreted as burns.
Once the connection between Ergot and St. Anthony’s fire was discovered, outbreaks could be controlled simply by removing rye bread from the diet of the affected population. With the development of modern fungicides and decreased popularity of rye bread, the condition has been forgotten by the general public.
Poliomyelitis
Although most people are still vaguely aware of polio, younger generations in an industrialized country would be unable to tell you anything about it beyond the name and perhaps that there is a vaccine for it. However, as recently as the 1950s, Canada experienced epidemics as large as 8000 cases, nationwide.
Polio is caused by a highly contagious virus. In an infected population, over 90% of people can be carriers. However, only 1% of those infected, usually children, will develop symptoms. This doesn’t sound so bad if you are unfamiliar with the symptoms of polio.
In the unlucky 1%, the virus moves from a relatively harmless existence in the digestive tract into the central nervous system. Once there, it quickly kills motor neurons, paralyzing victims, sometimes to the point that they can’t breathe without mechanical assistance.
At the height of the epidemics, hospitals used banks of iron lungs to keep victims alive. Some spent their entire lives trapped in these devices.
Polio patients being kept alive in iron lungs. Image: UNSpecial
Today, polio is effectively extinct in The West, defeated by vaccination. Although it is still endemic in some parts of the third world, partially due to fear of the vaccine, polio’s complete eradication seems possible.
Sources:
Associated Press. Rumours Cause Resistance to Vaccines in Nigeria. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15005238/ns/health-infectious_diseases/t/rumors-cause-resistance-vaccines-nigeria/ (accessed 01/22. 2012)
Institute of Tropical Disease, Antwerp. Illustrated Lecture Notes on Tropical Medicine. http://www.itg.be/itg/distancelearning/lecturenotesvandenendene/48_Mycotoxinsp2.htm#T2 (accessed 01/22. 2012)
Rutty, C. J. The Middle-Class Plague: Epidemic Polio and the Canadian State, 1936-1937. http://www.healthheritageresearch.com/MCPlague.html (accessed 01/22, 2012). Schumann,
Schumann, G.L. Ergot of Rye. http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/lessons/fungi/ascomycetes/Pages/Ergot.aspx (accessed 01/22. 2012)
