The Remarkable Preservation of 18th-Century Cadiz Mummies

In the Hungarian town of Vác, an ancient church in the neighbourhood was replaced by a milestone in science for more than 200 years.

An ancient Dominican church was demolished in 1994 in the Hungarian town of Vác. When the graves inside the sacred site were opened, experts were shocked to find the preserved remains of 265 individuals.

"Unveiling

The mummies in this case were not ordinary, but amazing mummies. Moreover, they were affected by a disease that, back in the decade, was used to remove teeth. This disease was called “tuberculosis bacillus” and was only discovered by the researcher Robert Koch in 1882. The disease is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and primarily affects the lungs, causing prolonged cough, phlegm and fever. However, people in the 18th century did not know its cause.

One third of such individuals died of the disease, for unknown reasons. It was reported that 90% of the mummies were affected by tuberculosis, even though the patients did not know when they became ill.

And, since the remains were in an excellent state of preservation, this allowed scientists to make a very important discovery for science: it will be possible to understand the evolution of the disease over the centuries.

Tuberculosis affected an entire family, which was discovered among the mummies in the pits.

They were the Hausmanns: There was the body of the eldest, Terézia Hausmann, who died at the age of 28, on December 27, 1797; and also the doll’s mother, whose name was unknown; and the younger sister, Barbara Hausmann, whom Terézia cared for.

The third, however, died of tuberculosis. Terézia was four years later, also ill and watching her mother and sister die.

What was very useful, however, is that the deaths occurred at a time close to the era of the invention of antibiotics, meaning that the bacteria had not yet adapted to the drugs.

"UnveilingAccording to a report in Examene magazine, forensic anthropologist Ilidkó Szikóssy of the Hungarian National History Museum viewed the discovery as an opportunity for the development of new medical research guidelines, which could be used by doctors in medicine.

In an interview, the specialist also said that at that time there were several strains of the disease, which coexisted at the same time. When analyzing the DNA of the mummies, they found traces that originated in the Roman Empire. Only the mummies of the Hausmann family, for example, had two different types of bacterial tuberculosis.

"UnveilingThe discovery was published in the journal Nature Communications. “It was fascinating to see the similarities between the sequences of the tuberculosis genome that were recovered and those of the genome of a recent strain from Germany,” said Mark Pallen, professor of medical microbiology at Warwick Medical School in the United Kingdom, in a statement.

According to Pallen, the study could help track the evolution and spread of microbes. It also “revealed that some [tuberculosis bacteria] strains have been circulating in Europe for more than two centuries,” he said.

In order to preserve the remains, the bodies had been placed in the Hungarian church between 1730 and 1838, thus allowing their preservation. It also helped, in the 1780s, that Joseph II of Austria banned burials in crypt churches, where bodies were placed one on top of the other, which was increasing pollution in the region.

However, residents of Vác did not respect the burial ban. For cultural reasons, they went to the Hungarian church and placed several important bodies underground. Until, in 1838, the practice was finally stopped.

The small corpse was then dug up in a manner similar to that of a human. However, the time the corpse was kept in, which varied between 8 and 11 days, and its high humidity of 90%, allowed the formation of a natural doll that was close to intact, allowing the detection of bacterial tuberculosis.

The mummies were transferred to the National History Museum in Hungary. According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis, which killed millions of people every day in the world, according to data from 2019.

The answer to new TB treatments may lie in pharmacobiology, the fascinating study of how microbes acted in the past.

Related Posts

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: Thiago Messi was spotted wearing his father Lionel’s iconic No.10 shirt while training at Newell’s Old Boys stadium in Rosario

Lionel Messi’s oldest son, Thiago, is a lot like his famous father in more than one way. . . . Thiago recently went to Argentina with Inter Miami’s U13 team to play in the famous Newell’s Cup, which was put on by his dad’s old football club, Newell’s …

Read more

Messi beat the 3 greatest stars of his time to win the 3 most important championships

Messi’s team once defeated the teams of Ronaldo, Neymar and Mbappe in three major finals.1. Beat Ronaldo in the 2008/09 Champions League final The performance in the 2008/09 Champions League final officially made Messi a world star. Only 1m69 tall, …

Read more

Major Isiah Pacheco injury update as Andy Reid faces decision on comeback star

Sport American Football ANDY Reid faces a major decision on a key piece of his team’s offence returning from injury. The Kansas City Chiefs coach is preparing his side for an AFC West division showdown with the Las Vegas Raiders on Black Friday. 2 Isiah …

Read more

Jason Kelce rejects huge Taylor Swift gift offer to ‘not take advantage’

JASON Kelce revealed he turned down an amazing offer from Taylor Swift to avoid creating a weird dynamic. The Philadelphia Eagles icon doesn’t want to use his position to take advantage of the music megastar. 2 Jason Kelce (back) doesn’t want to take …

Read more

Taylor Swift recibe disculpas de Billboard por usar un clip de Kanye West “desnudo”

¿Tienes una historia? Envía un correo electrónico a [email protected] Por BRIAN MARKS PARA DAILYMAIL.COM y MELODY FLETCHER PARA MAILONLINE Publicado: 00:38 GMT, 29 de noviembre de 2024 | Actualizado: 02:09 GMT, 29 de noviembre de 2024 Taylor Swift recibió una disculpa de la publicación musical …

Read more

The second richest billionaire in the world Elon Musk in his “unique” romantic process: Even after his pregnant girlfriend broke up with him, there was still an amazing development when the whole world discovered shows their reunion a few hours later.

Throughout his love journey, it seems that this billionaire always has one common characteristic for relationships. A few hours after the reunion news came out, there was another “shock”. It is true that no one can imagine what direction the love story …

Read more

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *