By her contacts with distant lands and peoples, Rome opened her gates to pestilence. The first of the great epidemics occurred about the year 79 A.D., shortly after the eruption of Vesuvius. This may have been fulminating malaria, possibly accompanied by an epidemic of anthrax which, being primarily a disease of animals, resulted in the large-scale destruction of livestock. The infection was confined to Italy, raging destructively in the cities, and causing some 10,000 deaths in the Campagna alone. For about a century there was much sickness, thought to have been chiefly malaria; then came the plague of Orosius in A.D. 125. This is an example of the famine-plague sequence, for the sickness was preceded by an invasion of locusts which destroyed large areas of crops. The pestilence that followed was particularly severe in Numidia, where 800,000 are reported to have died, and on the north coast of Africa where there was an estimated mortality of 200,000. The figures are probably exaggerated but suggest a high death toll. The plague passed from Africa to Italy, where so many died that whole villages and even towns were abandoned and fell to ruin.<\/p>\n
Culled from: Disease and History<\/a> by Frederick F.Cartwright<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s another excerpt from\u00a0Death Scenes: A Homicide Detective’s Scrapbook<\/a>\u00a0featuring some of Los Angeles area homicide detective Jack Huddleston’s favorite mug shots. This is Part Two of a Six Part series. The captions are all Jack’s. Look at the Mental Case and the Lesbian! \u00a0Combine the two and I’d have a new girlfriend!<\/p>\nMug Shots Du Jour!<\/h2>\n
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