Re: Pre-contact diseases anyone???

Ethan Vishniac (ethan@grendel.as.utexas.edu)
16 Jun 1995 20:49:57 GMT

<SHICKLEY@VM.TEMPLE.EDU> wrote:

>Here's the reference I found:
> Jackes MK.
> Osteological evidence for smallpox: a possible case from
> seventeenth century Ontario.
> American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 60(1):75-81,
> 1983 Jan.

Thanks.

However, although this suggests that smallpox can leave detectable
traces on bones, it doesn't provide any support for the notion
that smallpox made it to the Americas before Columbus.

"Quis tamen tale studium, quo ad primam omnium rerum causam evehimur,
tamquam inutile aut contemnendum detractare ac deprimere ausit?"-Bridel

Ethan T. Vishniac
Dept. of Astronomy also Associate Professor of Astrophysiology
The University of Texas G.G. Simpson Hereditable Chair of Evilution
Austin, Texas, 78712 University of Ediacara
ethan@astro.as.utexas.edu `Knowledge, Wisdom, Beer'