[MUSIC].

That's disgusting.
What is it?
>> This.
Slide these over here.
This is the unhealthy version of, of
actually, I should turn it around, of
this bone right here.
So what you're looking at is a frontal
bone.
Let me just set that up there.
>> Oh, I see.
>> I'm going to set that next to this
individual.
This is the exact same bone as this.
So it's the bone in your forehead.
And what you're looking at here is
somebody that suffered from a very, very
severe case of a group of pathogens that
we know as treponematosis.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And in this case specifically,
Venereal Syphilis.
>> Okay.
>> And I brought this in because it
really shows not only something that's
disgusting but it also shows
>> Sad maybe is
a better word than disgusting.
>> But it'd a be, yeah, all right.
Yeah.
>> But it shows sort of the basics of
bone pathology.
And when we look at the skeleton, we get
pathologies that affect the skeleton.
We can broadly group those into either
processes of extra bone growth or extra
bone destruction.
And here you've got both going on.
This pitted appearance is caused by
destruction of the surface of the bone
but at the same time, there's these dense
nodules caused by new bone growth.
And this is triggered by a bacteria,
treponematosis.
And there's actually a lot of debate
about this in terms of the study of both
the history of bone pathologies and the
history of disease in general.
Because it's not clear whether this
particular form of treponematosis is
originally indigenous to the new worlds.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Or to the old world.
>> Uh-huh.
>> In other words, was venereal
syphilis Columbus' gift to the Americas,
or was venereal syphilis the Americas'
gift to the old world?
And there is [CROSSTALK].
>> Wow, I can see why that would be
kind of a heated topic.
Yes, I see.
>> Absolutely.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Absolutely.
>> Or if you know, horrible thing done,
or revenge for horrible thing to add?
>> Absolutely.
>> Who's winning that debate right now,
or is it?
>> I would say it's still [CROSSTALK]
it's still up there.
[CROSSTALK] Because the key, the key is
that the signature bone pathology, which
is what you're looking at here, which is
known as caries sicca, this distinct what
we call a gummatous lesion of the frontal
bone appears and becomes, I do not want to say
very frequent, but starts showing up in
the osteological record in year post
1492, after this, after this trip.
>> okay.
>> And so the question is, is this just
an evolving pathogen?
>> Uh-huh, right.
>> That's sort of coincidental.
>> Independently-derived, or is it.
>> [CROSSTALK] or time period, or was
it brought back?
>> That's fascinating.
>> But the other problem is that we
don't really find it in the Americas
prior to this time, but we do know that a
form of Treponematosis was here.
And so it's also a question of, is this
an evolving pathogen, and one that's
become specifically adapted to the cooler
climates of Europe.
>> A fantastic example of you know,
people will politically want to argue on
both sides, but the evidence so far is,
the, the case is still open.
>> Well, it's great too, because if you
look at the historic sources in Europe at
the time.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> You know, one country is referring
to it as somebody else's disease.
So it's the French disease, the Turkish
disease, [LAUGH].
>> [LAUGH] Blame, yeah, blame the
opposition.
>> Exactly, exactly.
>> Do cancers, tuberculosis, do, does
ev, do all, do some diseases not affect
the bone, or do most in one way or
another or?
>> Well, for better, for worse.
Overall, better for humanity, worst for
the osteologist, is there's a whole host
of diseases that have no affect.
>> Oh, okay.
>> on the skeleton at all.
>> Okay.
>> So, for example, any diseases that
are caused by viruses don't affect the
skeleton.
>> How interesting.
>> So that's obviously good, good for
us, but you know tough for also the
reconstruction of the history of viruses.
But it's especially the the bacteria,
some of the bacterial diseases that do
so.
So I mentioned treponematosis,
tuberculosis is another good one.
Leprosy affects the skeleton.
So some of these key diseases that are
caused by bacteria, even, even your, your
more standard, your staff infection.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> Can actually involve,
>> Hm.
>> involve the, the skeleton.