4 ms·
My favorite theory for the development of lactose tolerance is that drinking fresh milk offers protection from smallpox. As a sanity check, http://books.google
by btilly 6y ago
My favorite theory for the development of lactose tolerance is that drinking fresh milk offers protection from smallpox.
As a sanity check, http://books.google.com/books?id=GyE8Qt-kS1kC&pg=PA151&dq=&lr=&hl=en&cd=23#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=GyE8Qt-kS1kC&pg=PA151&dq=&l... includes an estimate that approximately 10% of children in the 1700s died from smallpox. The first successful smallpox vaccine was made from cows. And the inspiration for the vaccine was the realization that the reason why milkmaids had good complexions was that something about their job gave them some level of protection against smallpox.
In mammals of all kinds, including humans and cows, milk delivers antibodies to protect babies. Therefore having fresh milk, and the fresher the better, provides protection from smallpox. This both helps survival and, as was apparent in the complexions of the milkmaids, resulted in more attractive adults.
There you have a very strong selection pressure to be able to drink fresh milk.
- ByteJockey 6y agoWasn't the theory not that milk provides protection from smallpox, but proximity to cows transmits cowpox, which itself provides protection from small pox? Then again, in a world where >95% of people are farmers and there's no refrigeration (so milk has to be consumed fast), I'm not sure the difference between handling cows and drinking milk is much of a difference.
- perl4ever 6y agoThis seems like kind of a tunnel vision outlook from knowing one particular bit of trivia. Have you heard of bovine tuberculosis? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycobacterium_bovis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycobacterium_bovis The reason it comes to mind is not because I've ever been near a farm, but I was just reading a collection of letters by a writer in the late 1940s, who had a small farm on an island. He was dying very slowly of tuberculosis (it seems implied people didn't distinguish between regular TB and bovine) and he mentions wanting to get a cow, but one that's been tested for TB to make sure his son doesn't get sick like him. Because humans can and do catch it from cows. There's also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brucellosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brucellosis which you get from unpasteurized milk. Our ancestors had a lot of experiences that are obscure now.
- 082349872349872 6y agoHumans are also vectors for swine diseases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMOPdUvKUwM&t=84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMOPdUvKUwM&t=84 https://porkgateway.org/resource/biosecurity-of-pigs-and-farm-security/ https://porkgateway.org/resource/biosecurity-of-pigs-and-far...