Difference between revisions of "Talk:Essay:Greatest Myths of World History"
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::::It is not hyperbole to suggest that smallpox needed no help to rampage through a population with little immunity. What is the point that I'm missing? [[User:Pepperlynn|Pepperlynn]] 00:26, 19 March 2009 (EDT) | ::::It is not hyperbole to suggest that smallpox needed no help to rampage through a population with little immunity. What is the point that I'm missing? [[User:Pepperlynn|Pepperlynn]] 00:26, 19 March 2009 (EDT) | ||
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| + | :::::When and where "germ theory" was "discovered" is not the point I think. Besieging armies had been catapalting plague-ridden corpses over city and castle walls for many centuries, and even when there was no plague, the effect of a putrifying animal flung by trebuchet into the defenders' water supply was well known throughout the Middle Ages. I have always tended to think the deliberate use of pox-ridden blankets was either a myth, or at most a very scarce occurrence, but there were certainly precedents. [[User:AlanE|AlanE]] 00:41, 19 March 2009 (EDT) | ||
Revision as of 04:41, March 19, 2009
Just pointing out, this list has two "1"s, when it should have a one followed by a 2....--IScott 11:56, 18 February 2009 (EST)
Smallpox
I don't think there's any real support for the idea that Europeans routinely and deliberately infected Native Americans with smallpox, but the idea that smallpox was communicable *was* well known, so much so that variolation against smallpox was practised in Europe from the 1720s. Pepperlynn
- You can't jump from that to intentionally spreading the disease to Indians with blankets, as anti-Christians claim.--Andy Schlafly 22:29, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
- I'm not trying to jump anywhere; I agree that it's a myth. I'm just saying that the lack of knowledge of germ theory is neither here nor there. Incidentally, the *idea* dates to the 1760s-- there just isn't any evidence that anyone actually tried it. Pepperlynn 22:46, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
- Your edit of the content page was hyperbolic, and unsupported, and missed the point. Hence the reversion.--Andy Schlafly 23:07, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
- It is not hyperbole to suggest that smallpox needed no help to rampage through a population with little immunity. What is the point that I'm missing? Pepperlynn 00:26, 19 March 2009 (EDT)
- When and where "germ theory" was "discovered" is not the point I think. Besieging armies had been catapalting plague-ridden corpses over city and castle walls for many centuries, and even when there was no plague, the effect of a putrifying animal flung by trebuchet into the defenders' water supply was well known throughout the Middle Ages. I have always tended to think the deliberate use of pox-ridden blankets was either a myth, or at most a very scarce occurrence, but there were certainly precedents. AlanE 00:41, 19 March 2009 (EDT)