Provided to YouTube by CDBaby December of Cambreadth · Heather Alexander Roundworm ℗ 2000 Prometheus Music Released on: 2000-01-01 Auto-generated by YouTube.
...just when I thought I’d heard every parody of March of Cambreadth in existence...I find this...
Richard III, born 1452, reigned as England’s monarch for two years until his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, was the subject of a great deal of posthumous ill will. Much of this may be attributed to Shakespeare’s portrayal of him as a power-hungry villain in Richard III. Hoping that the discovery of his remains might lead to a revision of this portrayal, members of the Richard III Society and researchers at the University of Leicester worked together in a search for these remains.
In 2012, Richard III’s remains were discovered under what is now a parking lot, and the find was corroborated in part by comparing the mitochondrial DNA of the remains to a living descendants of Richard III’s sister, Anne of York. Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA is matrilineal, and the sheer amount of it relative to nuclear DNA makes it useful in identifying remains.
(Richard III's skeleton on location in Leicester)
What interests us is that soil samples taken from the pelvic region contain eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides, a species of roundworm.
(A. lumbricoides egg)
With as many as 1.2 billion people worldwide infected with A. lumbricoides, it is the most common intestinal nematode infection in the world. Reaching up to 35 cm in length, A. lumbricoides is most common in warm, moist regions where proper sanitation and hygiene are lacking. This is due to the parasite’s method of transmission; the eggs are passed along in human feces and become a problem when people defecate outdoors or when feces is used as fertilizer. Given the period of time in which Richard III lived, infection with A. lumbricoides was probably common. Cases of infection are often asymptomatic, but Richard III might have experienced intestinal discomfort, intestinal blockage, or even coughing if A. lumbricoides larvae migrated up the respiratory tract. If he was ever infected as a child as well, he may have suffered from impaired growth due to malnutrition.
Since there are no other reasons why the eggs would have been present in the pelvic region, and given the fact that that the soil near the head, and the soil taken from a few feet away from the remains produced no eggs, it can be assumed that the infamous king would have had the infection prior to death.The presence of these eggs simply shows that Richard III came into contact with infected fecal matter, which would have been fairly easy to do. More interesting, however, is that many of the common parasites from the 15th century are not present, such as Trichuris trichiura, Taenia saginata/solium, Diphyllobothrium latum, and Fasciola hepatica, many of which are passed through improperly handled or cooked meats. This implies that royalty ate high quality of food prepared correctly, unlike many of the commoners.
This assumption is further supported by a multi-isotope analysis of Richard III’s femur and ribs, where researchers found evidence of a diet rich in luxury foods such as egrets, swans, and peacocks, along with a large quantity of fish within the last two years of his life. The finding of a well-known individual is a rare thing in the anthropological world, and it is interesting to see how finding the A. lumbricoides eggs can give insight to previously unknown medical conditions, and the sanitation level in the monarch's kitchen.
(Richard III's skull)
References:
Ascariasis. (2013, January 10). Retrieved February 13, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/ascariasis/index.html
(2013). The King's Bones: Richard III Revealed [Documentary]. In Smithsonian Channel.
Kemper, C. A. (2013). Fit for a king, but not a parasite. Infectious Disease Alert, 33(1), 9-10
Kennedy, M. (2013, February 4). Richard III: DNA confirms twisted bones belong to king. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/feb/04/richard-iii-dna-bones-king.
Angela L. Lamb, Jane E. Evans, Richard Buckley, Jo Appleby, Multi-isotope analysis demonstrates significant lifestyle changes in King Richard III, Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 50, October 2014, Pages 559-565, ISSN 0305-4403, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.06.021.
Mitchell, P. D., Hui-Yuan, Y., Appleby, J., & Buckley, R. (2013). The intestinal parasites of King Richard III. Lancet, 382(9895), 888. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61757-2
Piers D Mitchell, Hui-Yuan Yeh, Jo Appleby, Richard Buckley, The intestinal parasites of King Richard III, The Lancet, Volume 382, Issue 9895, 7–13 September 2013, Page 888, ISSN 0140-6736, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61757-2.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673613617572)
