Paleopathology : an introduction to the study of ancient evidences of disease / by Roy L. Moodie.

  • Moodie, Roy Lee, 1880-1934.
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Paleopathology : an introduction to the study of ancient evidences of disease / by Roy L. Moodie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/890 (page 23)
    porary events elsewhere were of the nature of prehistoric data but only for the region in which they occurred. Prehistoric events in America are usually regarded simply as pre- Columbian, and they are so-called in this work. Since the written records of American events prior to the coming of the Spaniards are very rare, being largely confined to the incomplete Maya6 records, the distinction of events in either North and South America as certainly of pre-Columbian date is well nigh impossible. The records contained in this book have been ascertained with care but are given with reserva¬ tions as to the exact date. The archeological evidences of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations indicate a previous history of many hundreds of years7 of which we know very little. The term prehistoric has no significance when applied to paleontological data, and Klebs (1917.1) has suggested that it be dropped altogether. The transition from the prehistoric to the historic was everywhere a slow and gradual process, and the boundary is not a sharp one. It is interesting to note that the history of disease and injury, from the first geological evidences at present obtainable, down to the his¬ torical data given in August Hirsch’s “Handbook of Geographical and Historical Pathology,” in which there is a review of the evidences from about 600 b. c. to 1875 A. d., may be seen as a series of consecutive events from the introduction of diseased conditions among animals and plants down to the present time. There can thus be no doubt that many of the existing diseases have a very great antiquity, since from their ravages in ancient times it can be seen that they have a history extending back into geological time for many millions of years. It is thought worth while to review and assemble, in connection with the study of fossil lesions, the results of Ruffer, already referred to, Elliot Smith, Wood Jones, Fouquet, Rietti, Gaillard and Lortet, and others on the pathological anatomy of the mummified remains of ancient animal and human races from the graves of Egypt. Their re- 6 C. P. Bowditch: The Numeration, Calendar Systems, and Astronomical Knowledge of the Mayas. 1910, 340 pp. Peabody Museum of Harvard. A more popular account of the Mayas is found in the work of Herbert J. Spinden: An¬ cient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America. New York, 1917 (American Museum of Natural History Handbook, Series 3). 7 Clark Wissler: The American Indian, 1917, p. 270. Clements R. Markham: The Tncas of Peru, Chapters I and II. An excellent account of the archeology of Peru is contained in the work of E. George Squier: Peru, Incidents of Travel and Explorations in the Land of the Incas, London, 18/7. This still remains after forty years the best and most readable account of the ancient ruins of Peru.