ILLS OF THE FLESH

Evening Star, Issue 19617, 25 July 1927, Page 5

ILLS OF THE FLESH

DISEASES WITH LONG HISTORIES Press Association—By Tclcgfaph—Copyright. LONDON, July 22. “ That Alexander the Great died of ccrehro-spinal fever and Ferdinand I. of Germany suffered adenoids are among tho disclosures duo to the unintentional preservation by sculptors and artists of past centuries,” said Sir Humphrey Rolleston, addressing the British Medical Association at Edinburgh. Investigations showed that gout was not a modern disease. Six out of twenty-four Sultans between 1299 and 1695 were sufferers from this disease. Tuberculosis had been identified in Egyptian mummies, and it was verv prevalent in ancient Greece, where it was one of the few infectious diseases. Smallpox had been traced in a mummy dating from 1100 u.o. Bubonic plague had also been recognised in Egypt and Syria in the third century b.c. Other diseases thought to be of modern origin were also virulent centuries ago.