TY - JOUR
T1 - From blefed to scamach
T2 - Pestilence in early medieval Ireland
AU - Grace, Pierce A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Royal Irish Academy.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Between A.D. 540 and 795 a series of major epidemics occurred in Ireland. Recorded in the Irish annals, each outbreak was given a name in Latin or Irish, but without clinical details the identity of specific diseases is speculative. Tentative diagnoses are: bubonic plague (blefed, second buide chonnail, mortalitas puerorum), relapsing fever or infectious hepatitis (first buide chonnail), Hansesn's disease or any scaly skin disorder (samthrosc, lepra), smallpox (bolgach), dysentery (riuth fola), lameness from polio or a cattle zoonosis (baccach) and pneumonia (scamach). Through examination of the annals and their interpretation by medical and other historians, this article provides an overview of the diseases in Ireland during the early medieval period and offers novel suggestions as to the identity of some of the disorders described.
AB - Between A.D. 540 and 795 a series of major epidemics occurred in Ireland. Recorded in the Irish annals, each outbreak was given a name in Latin or Irish, but without clinical details the identity of specific diseases is speculative. Tentative diagnoses are: bubonic plague (blefed, second buide chonnail, mortalitas puerorum), relapsing fever or infectious hepatitis (first buide chonnail), Hansesn's disease or any scaly skin disorder (samthrosc, lepra), smallpox (bolgach), dysentery (riuth fola), lameness from polio or a cattle zoonosis (baccach) and pneumonia (scamach). Through examination of the annals and their interpretation by medical and other historians, this article provides an overview of the diseases in Ireland during the early medieval period and offers novel suggestions as to the identity of some of the disorders described.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058313849&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3318/priac.2018.118.04
DO - 10.3318/priac.2018.118.04
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85058313849
SN - 0035-8991
VL - 118C
SP - 67
EP - 93
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics and Literature
JF - Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics and Literature
ER -