What Disease Was Plague?

On the Controversy Over the Microbiological Identity of Plague Epidemics of the Past
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-18002-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 2, 746 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1279 g

Reihe: Brill's Series in the History of the Environment

In recent decades, alternatives to the established bubonic-plague theory have been presented as to the microbiologcal identity and mechanism(s) of spread of historical plague epidemics. In this monograph, the six important alternative theories are intensively discussed in the light of the historical sources, the central primary studies and standard works on bubonic plague and the alternative microbiological agents, insofar as they are testable. These seven theories are incompatible and at least six of them must be untenable. In the author’s opinion, the arguments against the bubonic-plague theory and for all alternative theories are untenable. This monograph therefore also has been written also as a standard work on bubonic plague, giving a broad and in-depth presentation of the medical, epidemiological and historical evidence and the methodological tenets for identification of historical diseases by comparison with modern medical knowledge.

Zielgruppe

All those interested in medical history, the Black Death and the history of later plague epidemics, and the discussion of their microbiological identity and demographic effects.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Benedictow, Ole

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizinische Fachgebiete Medizinische Mikrobiologie & Virologie
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Epidemiologie, Medizinische Statistik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures and Tables xiii

Preface xv

PART ONE: THE ISSUE

1. The Issue and the Problems 3

Introduction 3

The Human-Flea Theory of Plague Epidemiology 9

The Revisionists 16

PART TWO: HOW S.K. COHN MAKES PHYSICIANS AND HISTORIANS “SQUARE THE CIRCLE”

2. The Ethics of Scholarly Work 25

Introduction 25

How Cohn Makes Medical Scientists “Square the Circle” 26

Hankin 1: Cohn’s Attack on Hankin’s Observation of Inverse Correlation between Mortality and Population Density 34

Hankin 2: A Brief Study of Cohn’s Technique of Argument 38

“The Ugly Americans” 44

Cohn’s Accusations of Racism against J. Ashburton Thompson and L.F. Hirst 46

How Cohn Makes “Historians Square the Circle” 54

The Attack on Schofi eld (and Benedictow and L. Bradley) 62

PART THREE: BASIC CONDITIONS FOR BUBONIC PLAGUE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

3. Rats 73

Introduction: How to Study Rats in History 73

The Nature of Rats and the Frame of Reference of the Medieval Mind 78

The Question of the Presence of Rats and the Methodological Fallacy of Inference ex silentio 85

Ars Moriendi Rattorum: Where Have all the Dead Rats Gone? 91

Zoobiological and Zoogeographical Arguments on the Question of Signifi cant Presence of Black Rats in Medieval Europe 98

The Signifi cance of Evolutionary Th eory and Adaptation by Selection 116

Rat Bones: Material Evidence of the Presence of Rats in the Middle Ages 122

Sociology of Rat-Based Plague 142

4. The Spread of Bubonic Plague over Distances 151

Contiguous Spread and Metastatic Spread 151

5. Mortality in India 194

Effects of the Anti-epidemic Eff orts by British Colonial Authorities 194

6. Was Historical Plague a Viral or Bacterial Disease? The Question of Immunity 205

Introduction 205

Re-infection or Immunity? 212

Did Plague Become a Child Disease aft er the Black Death? 218

Plague according to Social Class, Age and Gender 235

A Demographic Case Study: Th e Necrology of the Monastery of San Domenico in Camporegio 245

The Real Problem and its Solution: Marriage Rates and Fertility Rates aft er the Black Death 268

PART FOUR: DEFINING FEATURES

Introduction: Concept of Defining Feature 277

7. Defining Feature 1: Latency Periods 279

8. Defining Feature 2: Inverse Correlation between Mortality Rate and Population Density 289

Introduction 289

More Data on the Inverse Correlation in India and Historical Europe 291

Scott and Duncan and the Correlation between Population Density and Mortality 301

Epilogue: Sweating Sickness and the Inverse Correlation 311

9. Defining Feature 3: Buboes as a Normal Clinical Feature in Epidemics 312

General Introduction 312

Contemporary Notions and Observations of Buboes (and Associated Secondary Clinical Manifestations) 322

Scott and Duncan: The Problem of Buboes 334

Cohn: The Problem of Buboes 340

Cohn and Boccaccio: Buboes, Pustules and Spots 359

10. Defining Feature 4: DNA of Yersinia pestis from Plague Graves 381

11. Defining Feature 5: Seasonality of Bubonic Plague 396

Introduction: Bubonic Plague’s Association with Moderately Warm Temperatures and Seasons 396

Seasonality of Historical Bubonic-Plague Epidemics with Emphasis on the Transseasonal Form 398

The Seasonality of Plague and Mortality in England 1340–1666 420

Duration of Vacancies in Parish Benefices during the Black Death 436

Temporal Relationship between the Territorial Spread of the Black Death and Increase in Institutions 463

Summary and Conclusion 482

PART FIVE: THE ALTERNATIVE THEORIES

Introduction: The History and Essence of the Alternative Theories 487

12. The Beginning: Th e Alternative Theories of Shrewsbury and Morris 489

Shrewsbury: the Composite, Low-Intensity Theory 489

Morris: The Primary Pneumonic Theory 491

13. Gunnar Karlsson’s Alternative Theory: That Historical Plague was Pure Epidemics of Primary Pneumonic Plague 493

Introduction 493

Karlsson and Benedictow 495

Could Plague Have Come to Iceland from Anywhere? 502

Pure Epidemics of Primary Pneumonic Plague: Fact or Fiction? 511

Primary Pneumonic Plague in Manchuria: A Model for Iceland? 514

The Spontaneous Decline of Epidemics of Primary Pneumonic Plague 518

The Icelandic Climatic Th eory of Primary Pneumonic Plague 528

Mortality Rate of the Purported Plague Epidemics in Iceland 530

Summary: Why There Never Was a Plague Epidemic in Iceland 533

Was the Black Death in Bergen (Norway) 1349 Primary Pneumonic Plague? 536

Summary and Conclusion 550

14. Twigg’s Alternative Theory 553

Introduction 553

Th e Alternative Theory of Anthrax 555

Th e Historical Basis: The Use of Obsolete and Peripheral Studies 560

Th e Telluric-Miasmatic Th eory of Anthrax 562

Th e Pace of Spread of Plague 566

Anthrax and the Name Black Death 571

Anthrax’s Historical Association with Other Epizootics among Domestic Animals and Plague 574

Th e Black Death’s Origin and Spread and the Anthrax Theory 580

Twigg’s Demographic Argument 595

Concluding Remarks 608

15. The Alternative Theory of Scott and Duncan 610

Introduction 610

Disparaging Views of Historians and Physicians: Motive and Objective 611

The Material Scholarly Basis of Scott and Duncan’s Alternative Theory 615

The Demography of Historical Plague 628

The Reed-Frost Theory of Epidemiology 633

The Filoviridal Theory of Historical Plague: A Study in Academic Fiction 636

The Significance of Autopsies 653

Th e African Confinement 661

Summary and Conclusion 662

16. Cohn’s Alternative Theory 664

Epilogue 673
Appendix 1 Black Death Mortality in Siena: The Material Provided by the Necrology of the Monastery of San Domenico in Camporegio and
Summarized in Table 5 675

Appendix 2 Th e Accounts of the Icelandic Epidemics of 1402–4 and 1494–5 Given in Icelandic Annals 680

Appendix 3 Th e Extrinsic Incubation Period and the Structure and Composition of the Latency Period 682

Glossary 688

Bibliography 693

Index of Subjects 717

Index of Geographical Names and People 730

Index of Names 740

Über Autor(innen)

Ole J. Benedictow, Cand. Philol. in History (1961), University of Oslo, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Oslo. He has published extensively on historical plague epidemics and medieval demography including The Black Death 1346-1353. The Complete History (Boydell&Brewer 2004), The Black Death and Later Plague Epidemics in Norway (in Norwegian, Unipub 2002), and The Medieval Demographic System of the Nordic Countries (Middelalderforlaget, 2nd ed. 1996).