The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1906-07-19
DISEASE IN MUMM|ES
ANCIENT wRAPPINGs CONTAIN
TUBERCULAR BACILLI.
White Plague Said to Have Been Car
ried to Europe from Egypt with
First Corpses Trans
ported.
Versus

Chicago. = "Egyptology Versus
Health" was the title of a, monograph
received at the Tuberculosis institute
of Chicago In a recent afternoon, In
which 1t was alleged that the great
spread of tuberculosis In Europe and
America in the last 100 years found
its causation In the disinterment and
shipment broadcast over the land OF
the mummies which had reposed so
long in the tombs Of the Pharaohs.
The monograph was written by DR..
Rafaelle Sorgnac, one OF the lecturers
at the Sorbonne in Paris, who was
an interested visitor at the recent tu
berculosis exhibit in the city.
"That the disinterred mummies
started the spread of the tuberculosis
4 germs In Egypt cannot be doubted,
SAYS DR.. Sorgnac in his monograph
"Champollion did much for the world
when he discovered the key to the
hieroglyphs, but loosened death on the
world when he caused the mummies to
be disentombed There are more tu'
berculosis germs In the almost I'M
palpabe dust around a mummy case
than in many cuspidors of efiluvia.
"These germs live for thousands OF
years, as has easily been proven, and
the exhumation of the bodies, even
the well-preserved ones, caused an cpl
demic of consumption among the
workmen and scholars who first ex
humed the cases. 1t is also well
known that the keepers Of the mummy
cases have been subject to the disease
'"The start of tuberculosis in France
in a serious sense may be traced tt
the great importation of mummie'
and mummy cases at the time OF the
, Napoleonic invasion of Egypt and this
= start gave the disease It's first grea
, foothold in Europe, whence 1t ha'
spread all over the western world
Dead bodies may not secrete th'
/ germs, but dead bodies are undoubt
edly favorite lodging place for tn
= tubercular bacilli
"The bacilli from the mummies ar
} undoubtedly Of great age and 1t ha
r been shown by experiments In Pari
[ that these aged bacilli are infnitel.
Z more deadly than those obtained fron
) the sputum of live persons who ar
4 infected There may or may not be
poetic justice in the secretion of bacill
I in mummy cases which attack thos
5 who have desecrated the tombs of tn
8 dead, but the appearance OF tn
e bacilli cannot be made a subject 10
+ discussion. II is a solid fact. Nun
my cases and mummies are a NOR
deadly source Of the disease calle
/. consumption than any other two la
tors combined.
o "The first mummies brought tn
white plague TO Europe and ever
Egyptian corpse which is unearthe
is pesthouse Of deadly germs eve
p after IL has been subjected to sc
a voyage and to fumigation. Ii Is a
0 most impossible TO kill the bacil
i which are found In the mummy wral
|. pings and the cases are nearly alway
d full of a dust which abounds in germ
e which have been lying dormant fo
= ages"
, Local physicians were inclined
Il deride DR.. Sorgnac's theory that III
J. white plague Of modern times starte
= with the importation Of mummies, br
T none would gainsay the fact that tn
i favorite haunt Of the bacillus was th
6 proximity OF the dead, no matter ho'
v the bodies had been preserved