Thanks for the link in FReepmail, procrastination pays off again!
Posted on 10/28/2025 12:31:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The retreat from Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Grande Armée in 1812 was a cataclysmic event that marked the beginning of the end for his empire and personal dominance in Europe, with about 300,000 soldiers perishing in a force that originally numbered roughly a half million.
A new study involving DNA extracted from the teeth of 13 French soldiers who were buried in a mass grave in Lithuania's capital Vilnius along the route of the retreat is offering a deeper understanding of the misery the Grande Armée experienced, detecting two pathogens not previously documented in this event.
"Vilnius was a key waypoint on the 1812 retreat route. Many soldiers arrived exhausted, starving and ill. A substantial number died there and were interred rapidly in mass graves," said molecular biologist and geneticist Nicolás Rascovan, head of the microbial paleogenomics unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and senior author of the study published in the journal Current Biology.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailystar.net ...
I didn’t know lice did anything that contributed to illness that involved fevers and such. Imagine bringing home typhus and other diseases to the loved ones.
This is why all third class passengers were checked for lice before boarding Titanic to come to America. Most all Shipping companies did at the time.
Thanks for the link in FReepmail, procrastination pays off again!
When the Nazis ordered him to round up a certain number of Jews on a regular basis to be carted off, he readily complied, continually telling the Jews how important it was for them not to hide, but to cooperate, because they would live if they did. Unknown to Gens, by that time, the Jews he gave up were being carted away and murdered.
Then came a time when Gens began having problems finding Jews to put on the busses that regularly arrived. He ended up sending out known thugs to find the Jews that were hiding, and turn them over. When the thugs eventually stopped being able to find Jews, Gens began showing up at the gate with fewer and fewer Jews. The day before the camp was dissolved by Franz Murer, the German deputy for Jewish Affairs, because of incompetence and ineffectiveness, Jacob's name was called over the loudspeaker to report to the front gate. He reported, and found the Gestapo there to take him away. He was killed the next day.
So you don’t have to click to get the answer:
From the article:
“While cold, starvation and typhus have long been emphasized, our results show that paratyphoid fever and louse-borne relapsing fever were also present and may have contributed to debilitation and mortality,” Rascovan added.
Paratyphoid fever typically is food- or water-borne, with symptoms including fever, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea or constipation, weakness and sometimes a rash.
The form of relapsing fever detected is transmitted by body lice and causes episodes of recurring high fever, with headache, muscle pain and weakness.
So you don’t have to click to get the answer:
From the article:
“While cold, starvation and typhus have long been emphasized, our results show that paratyphoid fever and louse-borne relapsing fever were also present and may have contributed to debilitation and mortality,” Rascovan added.
Paratyphoid fever typically is food- or water-borne, with symptoms including fever, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea or constipation, weakness and sometimes a rash.
The form of relapsing fever detected is transmitted by body lice and causes episodes of recurring high fever, with headache, muscle pain and weakness.
Friends came back from a Russia last century and gave us a big hug. It took more than 6 months to get rid of the scabies infection. We cleaned ourselves, washed all clothes and bedding in very hot water. Then a child would find a jacket they had dropped behind the couch or something, wear it and again have scabies. What a nightmare of repeat attacks.
It was the fondue.
It's recorded that 600K French began the invasion and only a fraction returned home. Most died of disease and exposure.
See: "The Illustrious Dead" Stephan Talty
Scabies requires a medication and laundering everything in hot water. People who sleep on the ground (around here, homeless people, who are mostly men) tend to be disproportionately impacted.
It’s nice that the scabies mites have a home, though.
Same goes for the typhus. 💊
I was expecting this to be about the “French disease”
Hans Zinsser’s 1934 ‘Rats, Lice, and History’ gives an interesting “biography” of Typhus fever in Europe over the ages.
Thank you for showing the courtesy and respect for your fellow Freepers that the OP did not.
...plus B...
"An army travels on its stomach."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte
... equals C:
Why Napoleon Offered A Prize For Inventing Canned Food
Napoleon offered 12,000 francs to improve upon the prevailing food preservation methods of the time. Not surprisingly, the purpose was to better feed his army "when an invaded country was not able or inclined to sell or provide food". Fifteen years later, confectioner Nicolas François Appert claimed the prize. He devised a method involving heating, boiling and sealing food in airtight glass jars — the same basic technology still used to can foods.
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