THE anthrax letter attacks of 2001 might help solve a mystery from the Middle Ages. A disease called English sweating sickness struck mainly young males in rural England between 1485 and 1551, but its cause has remained obscure.
Now Edward McSweegan, a microbiologist in Washington DC, points out that the symptoms, such as profuse sweating, seem similar to those of the 10 people who developed inhalational anthrax in 2001. In 15th-century England, people could have been infected by spores from raw wool or animal skins, or from infected carcasses.
The hypothesis is testable. Anthrax spores could linger in coffins for…
