Our discussion on Monday 19th January 2009 -postponed from November 2008- was about Disease.
We talked about many of the major diseases, such as Malaria, Yellow Fever, Plague and Smallpox.It is thought that the oldest disease known to man is Malaria, as we are descended from apes and monkeys who are known to have had this disease. So it must be assumed that we aquired the malaria parasite from our ape ancestors.
All other epidemic diseases are thought to be late-comers to the bodies of people, and are usually the result of certain critical numbers of people coming together. So it is usually claimed that while man was a widely scattered hunter-gatherer, he was free of most of the major communicable diseases other than malaria,but when he settled down in groups to live and farm the land he became prey to these infectious diseases.In the past when doctors did not know what these diseases were, or came from, they would blame such factors as God's punishment for a terrible act. In 16th C Italy they called one such disease "Influenza" which means "attributed to the influence of the stars".
Since early times, in wars, victories often turned to defeat as diseases spread through the ranks killing many thousands, and sometimes before a battle had even been fought.
A final thought on this topic, and one which cannot be answered, is why sometimes a virus suddenly strikes, runs its course and then goes just as quickly without any apparent reason. We also dicussed changes in treatment and prevention of disease over the centuries.
The next meeting will be on Monday 9th February and the topic will be "Wish I had been there!".
N.B. This is the 2nd Monday in the month to avoid half-term. We will return to 3rd Monday in March as usual.
Michael Page
