| By :
Mark Etinger
I often wonder how the people of Europe would have fared during the Bubonic Plague (which was spread to humans by ticks on mice and rats or through personal contact with the ill) had they had Mouse glue traps and some of the other best mouse traps out there. It\'s a fascinating debate. On the one side you have going back in time with some of the best mouse traps and spreading them all around Europe. This would reduce or possible eliminate the Plague from hitting Europe saving untold hundreds of thousands. There were also less plagues of Black Death such as The Great Plague of London, The Great Plague of Vienna, and The Great Plague of Seville. The other side of the coin, however, is that during the bubonic plague that vaccination was possible. As the story goes people began to realize that people who got sick with smallpox could not again, and where often employed treating the ill. The real breakthrough came with people noticed milkmaids, who all suffered at one point or another from cow pox, also did not smallpox. Thus infection with cow pox (a very mild disease) was found to prevent Black Death. Although that is not technically a vaccine, this is where the concept of vaccination and immunization came from. I also wonder how the sailor of yesterday would have utilized glue boards and other mouse traps. Rats in ships were a big problem back then. The only real defense against the pests they had was to have some cats on board, but that method was not particularly effective. Small pox is one example, but we have no way of knowing exactly how many diseases where spread around the world by mice and rats on ships. It is a relatively agreed upon scientific fact that animals are often responsible for diseases jumping to humans or mutating into a fatal human virus. The latest example being HIV/AIDS which is believed to by a mutation on SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus) that made the jump when people came into contact with the blood of chimps and other monkey during butchering and eating them. Since they did not have the technology back then, there is no way of knowing exactly where viruses originated, but man certainly came from animals especially mice, rats, and mosquitos. Could some mouse glue tape sent back in time prevent mosquitos from spreading malaria? I guess we will never know.
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