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An isotopic case study of individuals with syphilis from the pathological-anatomical reference collection of the National Museum in Prague (Czech Republic, 19th century A.D.)

par Salesse, Kevin ;Kaupova, Sylva;Bruzek, Jaroslav;Kuzelka, Vitezslav;Veleminsky, Petr
Référence International Journal of Paleopathology, 25, page (46-55)
Publication Publié, 2019-01-01

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

Objective: This paper aims at investigating the possible existence of isotopic offsets in δ13Ccol and δ15Ncol valuesin relation to tertiary syphilis.Material: Based on materials from the 19th c. A.D. deriving from the pathological-anatomical reference collection(the Jedlička collection) of the National Museum in Prague (Czech Republic), a comparative approach often individuals with syphilis and nine without the disease was undertaken.Methods: Bone powder samples were defatted according to the protocol of Liden et al. (1995). Bone collagen wasextracted following the protocol of Bocherens et al. (1991).Results: Our results show that individuals with syphilis have lower δ13Ccol values than individuals without thedisease; the observed difference between the two groups is about 0.3-0.4‰, which is relatively small but stillmeaningful. However, no difference between δ15Ncol values of the two groups has been noticed.Conclusions: Either diets prescribed by physicians to syphilitic patients or nutritional stress caused by cyclicappetite disturbance due to the disease itself or the administered medical treatment appeared to be possibleexplanations of the observed isotopic pattern. Overall, the response of the two isotopic proxies could argue forrelatively limited nutritional restrictions.Significance: This is the first study examining bone collagen isotopic response to syphilis based on clinicallydocumented human skeletal materials.Limitations: The sample sizes are relatively small and cautiousness must be taken regarding the interpretations ofthe data.Suggestions for further research: Compound-specific stable isotope investigations and analysis of mercury contentcould be helpful to better understand the observed isotopic effects.