Ray Saintonge wrote:
Stan Shebs wrote:
Some
writers blame Europeans for bringing
diseases to the New World - centuries before anybody even had any
idea how diseases got around.
I'm sure that General Amherst knew what he was doing when he gave
infected blankets to the Indians in 1767. At the Battle of Kaffa in
1346 the besieging Tartars used catapults to fling plague infected
bodies into the city. Understanding how infectious diseases worked
did not prevent them from being used for military purposes.
Yes, plague was known to be infectious early on, and by the 18th century
the generalized theory was in the air. The oversimplified version in
books
mixes up centuries of history though, leaving the impression that
Columbus
genocided the Indians by coughing into their faces. :-)
Columbus gets it going both ways. There is still some dispute about
whether he brought yellow fever to the new world, and he is linked to an
outbreak nf that disease in Hispanola in 1495-6. That disease is
transmitted by a mosquito rather than by coughing.
He was also blamed for the outbreak of syphilis in the French army in
1404-5. It was the first major outbreak of the disease in Europe. The
army that besieged Naples also included a number of Spanish soldiers who
had been with Columbus suring his first voyage.
Ec