"We found the Beagle had not arrived, and consequently set out on our return, but the horses soon tiring, we were obliged to bivouac on the plain. In the morning we had caught an armadillo, which, although a most excellent dish when roasted in its shell, did not make a very substantial breakfast and dinner for two hungry men." Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle
I had read the Voyage before; probably two decades again and so much of it I've forgotten. In this case, the fact that Darwin decided to travel over land between ports. So the Beagle dropped him off and they both traveled to the next port along the southern coast of Argentina - but Darwin on horseback. There are a number of pages between yesterday's quote and today's but they mostly relate to General Rosas, a most interesting and dreadful character. I could see an HBO miniseries about this guy. So I'm skipping over throats cut, death by spearing, torture, and lots of geology I'm unfamiliar with.
On Darwin's horse ride to the next port, he travel with soldiers and fellow travelers from ranch to ranch to army post. But near the end his party dwindled to one other traveler. Darwin is exhausted, thirsty, and hungry - and very muddy. They find an armadillo to eat. I'm including this account because there's no mention of the association of leprosy with armadillos so I'm wondering if it was unknown or just ignored.
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I have a manuscript due in an hour and 20 minutes. So gotta run. 4 hours of sleep. Going to be a long long day.
Knowledge of a armadillo/leprosy connection is very recent. It was not until 1971 that it was noted that armadillos could be infected with Mycobacterium leprae in the laboratory, and it was not until 1975 that infection was confirmed in wild armadillos. In 1977, the pioneering investigation into armadillos as a source for zoonotic leprosy returned a negative result, and it was not until 1983 that a direct connection between armadillo contact was made with any particular cases of leprosy. Most of the relevant literature is cited in Truman et al, "Probable Zoonotic Leprosy in the Southern United States", N Engl J Med 2011.
ReplyDeleteCool! Nice reference. Thanks!
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