HOMO MILITANS 



But Homo militans instantly intervened, and particularly by virtue of 

 the aid rendered by the 'World Health Organization' it was possible 

 to vaccinate 80 per cent of the population on short notice. There- 

 after the epidemic came to a halt; after December 8 no new cases 

 have been recorded. Through the 'World Health Organization' the 

 Egyptian Government received more than 6.5 thousand litres of 

 vaccine in a short time; 19 different countries, among which the 

 U.S.A., the U.S.S.R., China, and Korea, had contributed their share. 

 Although the epidemic still made 10,000 victims, it must be admitted 

 that this figure compares favourably with the 34,945 deaths caused 

 by the previous Egyptian cholera epidemic of 1902. 



Next I want to document my earlier statement that pestilences like 

 those just discussed occasionally have had a decisive influence on the 

 history of mankind. The data have been derived from the exciting 

 book, 'Rats, Lice and History', written by the American bacteriol- 

 ogist, H. Zinsser, and characterized by its author as a biography of 

 typhus. 



In an introductory chapter Zinsser pleads for his view that exten- 

 sive epidemics, no longer diagnosable with certainty, have materially 

 contributed to the down fall of the Roman Empire. We have, for 

 example, learned of descriptions of an epidemic that started in 165 

 A.D. in Verus' armies in the East, and in a short time spread from 

 Rome throughout the entire domain, 'from Persia to the borders of 

 the Rhine'. Orosius states that several Italian cities and villages were 

 evacuated and fell into decay as a result of the disease. Certain it is 

 that this terror lasted for at least fourteen years, and disappeared only 

 to reappear nine years later, Dio Cassius mentioning that in Rome 

 alone 2,000 deaths occurred daily. It is understandable that under 

 these circumstances, causing the depopulation of cities, and the virtual 

 cessation of agriculture and of commerce, the Roman political appa- 

 ratus was strongly affected, and cancelled several military campaigns. 

 In the year 250 a new epidemic swept through Rome, with different 

 symptoms and great contact infectivity, ultimately spreading from 

 Egypt to Scotland, and lasting for at least fifteen years. Hieronymus 

 attests to the fact that the human race had virtually ceased to exist, 

 and that the earth had returned to a state of primeval forests and 

 deserts. 



405 



