When I do my genealogy research, knowing that I may never even see a photo or portrait or drawing of an ancestor, I ask myself, if, given the chance, I would care to see them as a mummy. I think I'd be too squeamish...
The Hungarian Mummies that scientists have been studying to learn more about TB are now studying the same Mummies and are thinking that Colon-Rectal Cancer may not be caused by modern habits.
SCIENCE DAILY - COLON CANCER IN HUNGARIAN MUMMIES sourced from American Friends of Tel Aviv University
EXCERPTS:
In 1995, more than 265 mummies were excavated from sealed crypts in the Dominican church in Vác, Hungary. These crypts were used continuously from 1731 to 1838 for the burial of middle-class families and clerics and provided ideal conditions for the natural mummification of corpses -- low temperatures, constant ventilation and low humidity. Some 70% of the bodies found had been completely or partially mummified.
The preservation of the tissue samples and abundant archival information about the individuals buried in the crypts attracted researchers from around the world, all of whom where interested in conducting their own morphological and genetic studies of the human remains.
"Colorectal cancer is among the most common health hazards of modern times," Dr. Rosin-Arbesfeld explains. "And it has a proven genetic background. We wanted to discover whether people in the past carried the APC mutation -- how common it was, and whether it was the same mutation known to us today. In other words: Is the increase in the incidence of cancer the result of man's manipulation of nature alone?
