Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of the ancient Romans. The Mayan text
Popol
Vuh
describes bees used as booby traps against
invaders [16]. Henry I catapulted beehives at the
Duke of Lorraine's army in the eleventh century.
In 1289, this tactic was also used by Hungarian
troops against invading Turks [2].
Venomous insects and reptiles have been
enlisted during battles. Hannibal catapulted clay
jars filled with venomous snakes during the deci-
sive naval battle of Eurymedon against King
Eumenes of Perganum between 190 and 184
BC. During 198-199 AD, the citizens of Hatra
(this city's remains are located near Mosul, Iraq)
successfully defended their city from a Roman
attack by the use of clay pot bombs likely filled
with scorpions and other venomous insects gath-
ered from the surrounding desert [2].
No history of ancient toxicological experts
would be complete without mentioning perhaps the
most notorious, Scythian King Mithridates VI of
Pontus [17]. Obsessed with a phobia of assassina-
tion by poison (he had murdered family members
in this way), Mithridates was accompanied by a
team of ancient doctors known for their knowledge
of healing potions from various snake venoms.
He daily ingested small amounts of various toxins
so that he would develop immunity from their
effects. He created an elaborate mixture of over 50
ingredients into a single drug for his own protec-
tion. Mithridates demise was particularly ironic.
While surrounded by his enemies, he chose to
commit suicide in 63 BC. He took poison, which
was ineffective due to his self-conferred immunity.
Mithridates then ordered his bodyguard to run him
through with a sword [2].
English harbors. They hoped to infect rats that
would then spread disease among the British popu-
lation. Fortunately, this was rejected for both moral
and practical reasons [19].
Covert biological operations were planned for
neutral countries trading with the Allies in order
to infect livestock and contaminate animal feed
exported to Allied forces.
Bacillus anthracis
and
Burkholderia mallei
, the causative agents of
anthrax and glanders, were to be used to infect
Romanian sheep for export to Russia. In 1916,
cultures confiscated from German diplomats in
Romania were identified as
Ba. anthracis
and
Bu. mallei
at the Bucharest Institute of Bacteri-
ology and Pathology.
Bu. mallei
was allegedly used
by German saboteurs operating in Mesopotamia
to inoculate 4500 mules and in France to infect
French cavalry horses. Livestock in Argentina
intended for export to Allied forces were infected
with
Ba. anthracis
and
Bu. mallei
, resulting in the
deaths of more than 200 mules from 1917 to 1918
[19,20].
German operations in the United States included
attempts to contaminate animal feed and to infect
horses intended for export during World War I
[4]. In Chevy Chase, Maryland, Dr. Anton Dilger,
a German-American physician, set up a secret
biological warfare laboratory. Large quantities of
Ba. anthracis
and
Bu. mallei
were grown in a work-
shop known to other German agents as “Tony's
Lab.” Perhaps the largest explosion in New York
City until September 11, 2001 occurred when
members of this group detonated 2 million pounds
of ammunition at the Black Tom freight terminal in
New York Harbor on the night of July 29-30, 1916
[21]. Dilger paid Baltimore longshoreman and
other dockworkers to spread his cultures among
horses that were being shipped to England. He
distributed glass bottles, about an inch and a half
long with needles protruding from cork stoppers,
which were filled with his homemade anthrax and
glanders cultures. This group traveled along the
East coast, inoculating horses in livestock pens in
New York City, Norfolk, and Newport News [19].
They also poured anthrax into the animals' food
and water [20].
2.7 World War I—German Saboteurs
Germany used chemical warfare agents such as
mustard and chlorine gas extensively during World
War I. It is perhaps not as well known that
Germany is considered to have developed an ambi-
tious biological warfare program during World
War I. German Zeppelins (dirigible airships) were
used in bombing raids of England in 1915-1918
[18]. One German plan was to discharge vats
of bubonic plague cultures from Zeppelins over
