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

  • Moodie, Roy Lee, 1880-1934.
Date:
1923
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Licence: In copyright

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

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    to add to its biological aspect the interrelation of medical history and pathology.15 DEFINITION OF DISEASE AS USED IN THIS WORK Disease, for the purpose of discussion in paleopathology, may be defined16 as any deviation from the healthy or normal state of the body which has left a visible impress upon the fossilized or mummified remains. These evidences may take the form of broken bones, which have been more or less completely healed, with or without the forma¬ tion of callus, but tumors, necroses, hyperplasias, and deforming arthri- tides of all kinds constitute the more obvious indications of disease or injury. The intimate associations of earlier Paleozoic animals often resulted in a pathological relationship which is essentially one of dis¬ ease. Such associations belong to the earlier stages of disease in which the lesions are less obvious, though the result was none the less serious to the animal affected. Only the diseases of fossil animals, chiefly those of the vertebrates, and of ancient man are considered. This is done with a full realization of the enormous domain of phytopathology and the pathology of the invertebrates, and the significance of the diseases of these forms in an interpretation of the scope of paleopathology in its broadest aspects. Whetzel17 in reviewing the development of phytopathology does not mention the domain of fossil plant pathology, and doubtless much remains to be done in this field. In Chapter III Dr. Edward W. Berry has given a brief discussion of what is known about disease among fossil plants but apparently the field has not been as intensively cultivated as it has been among recent plants, and that for obvious reasons. EVIDENCES OF DISEASE AMONG FOSSIL PLANTS That ancient plants, as well as animals, were subject to disease and - injury of various types, may be seen by referring to Chapter III. Bac¬ terial and fungus activity is known to have been in existence since the Devonian and was especially active during the Carboniferous. Probably evidences could be detected at much earlier horizons if petri¬ fied material of greater age were available for study. It is often difficult 16 Synthesis of Paleontology and Medical History. Science, N. S., xlviii, no. 1251, 1918, 619-620. 16 “An infectious disease . . . may be interpreted as the result of parasitism in which no mutual adaptation has taken place, and in which the invasion of the host by the micro¬ organism is marked by a struggle, the local and systemic manifestations of which constitute the disease.” Hans Zinsser: Infection and Resistance, 2nd ed. 1918, 8. 17 H. H. Whetzel: An Outline of the History of Phytopathology, Phila., 1918.