The sex-selective impact of the Black Death and recurring plagues in the Southern Netherlands, 1349-1450.

Although recent work has begun to establish that early modern plagues had selective mortality effects, it was generally accepted that the initial outbreak of Black Death in 1347-52 was a "universal killer." Recent bioarchaeological work, however, has argued that the Black Death was also selective with regard to age and pre-plague health status. The issue of the Black Death's potential sex selectivity is less clear. Bioarchaeological research hypothesizes that sex-selection in mortality was possible during the initial Black Death outbreak, and we present evidence from historical sources to test this notion. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the Black Death and recurring plagues in the period 1349-1450 had a sex-selective mortality effect. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We present a newly compiled database of mortality information taken from mortmain records in Hainaut, Belgium, in the period 1349-1450, which not only is an important new source of information on medieval mortality, but also allows for sex-disaggregation. RESULTS: We find that the Black Death period of 1349-51, as well as recurring plagues in the 100 years up to 1450, often had a sex-selective effect-killing more women than in "non-plague years." DISCUSSION: Although much research tends to suggest that men are more susceptible to a variety of diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites, we cannot assume that the same direction of sex-selection in mortality applied to diseases in the distant past such as Second Pandemic plagues. While the exact reasons for the sex-selective effect of late-medieval plague are unclear in the absence of further data, we suggest that simple inequities between the sexes in exposure to the disease may not have been a key driver.

The 'light touch' of the Black Death in the Southern Netherlands: an urban trick?

Although the fanciful notion that the Black Death bypassed the Low Countries has long been rejected, nevertheless a persistent view remains that the Low Countries experienced only a 'light touch' of the plague when placed in a broader European perspective, and recovered quickly and fully. However, in this article an array of dispersed sources for the Southern Netherlands together with a new mortmain accounts database for Hainaut show that the Black Death was severe, perhaps no less severe than other parts of western Europe; that serious plagues continued throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; and that the Black Death and recurring plagues spread over vast territories-including the countryside. The previous conception of a 'light touch' of plague in the Low Countries was created by the overprivileging of particular urban sources, and a failure to account for the rapid replenishment of cities via inward migration, which obscured demographic decimation. We suggest that the population of the Low Countries may not have recovered faster than other parts of western Europe but instead experienced a greater degree of post-plague rural-urban migration.

Recovery of cobalt from dilute aqueous solutions using activated carbon-alginate composite spheres impregnated with Cyanex 272.

A novel adsorbent was designed for selective recovery of cobalt(ii) from synthetic binary cobalt(ii)-nickel(ii) and cobalt(ii)-manganese(ii) solutions, a synthetic multi-element solution and a real aqueous waste stream from the petrochemical sector. The adsorbent consisted of shaped activated carbon-alginate spheres impregnated with Cyanex 272. The synthesis was followed by characterisation using SEM, infrared spectroscopy, BET analysis and elemental analysis. Good selectivity for cobalt(ii) over nickel(ii) could be achieved during adsorption, while this was not the case for cobalt(ii) over manganese(ii). Cobalt(ii) and manganese(ii) were therefore fully adsorbed and stripped using a dilute sulphuric acid solution. The adsorbent was shown to be reusable in a column setup. Finally, the adsorbent material was used for the purification of a real aqueous waste stream from the petrochemical sector.

Climate and society in long-term perspective: Opportunities and pitfalls in the use of historical datasets.

Recent advances in paleoclimatology and the growing digital availability of large historical datasets on human activity have created new opportunities to investigate long-term interactions between climate and society. However, noncritical use of historical datasets can create pitfalls, resulting in misleading findings that may become entrenched as accepted knowledge. We demonstrate pitfalls in the content, use and interpretation of historical datasets in research into climate and society interaction through a systematic review of recent studies on the link between climate and (a) conflict incidence, (b) plague outbreaks and (c) agricultural productivity changes. We propose three sets of interventions to overcome these pitfalls, which involve a more critical and multidisciplinary collection and construction of historical datasets, increased specificity and transparency about uncertainty or biases, and replacing inductive with deductive approaches to causality. This will improve the validity and robustness of interpretations on the long-term relationship between climate and society. This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Disciplinary Perspectives.