Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!coherent!dplatt From: dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: The Ubiquity of Tay-Sachs: a shocking but elegant theory Summary: Not to leap to conclusions... Message-ID: <20516@coherent.com> Date: 11 Feb 89 22:35:14 GMT References: <10276@ut-emx.uucp> Reply-To: dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt) Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA Lines: 24 In article eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond) writes: > I don't know if he ever tried controlled in vitro test of this > hypothesis; in vivo, of course, would be horribly dangerous. But if > true, it would explain an *awful* lot about the tragic history of the > Jews in Europe. Perhaps the Ashkenazim really *were* (inadvertent) > plague-spreaders. Standard theory about the ghettos escaping the worst > effects because of `superior sanitation' always had sounded kind of thin > to me. Your "perhaps" doesn't seem to follow from the hypothesis. Even if it's true that the Tay-Sachs gene confers some immunity against the plague bacillus, it isn't necessary to infer that the Ashkenazim were even inadvertent plague-spreaders. The mechanisms by which plague spreads seem to be very well understood (rats, etc.). The very fact that the Ashkenazim weren't as commonly or as seriously affected by the plague would be reason enough (in the eyes of superstitious and anti-Semitic Christians) to throw suspicion on the Jews. -- Dave Platt FIDONET: Dave Platt on 1:204/444 VOICE: (415) 493-8805 UUCP: ...!{ames,sun,uunet}!coherent!dplatt DOMAIN: dplatt@coherent.com INTERNET: coherent!dplatt@ames.arpa, ...@sun.com, ...@uunet.uu.net USNAIL: Coherent Thought Inc. 3350 West Bayshore #205 Palo Alto CA 94303