Amazonian High Civilizations Survive Into Modern Times

While variolation was indeed developed to deal with smallpox, the fundamental principle, inoculation with a weakened strain of the disease, is applicable to a wide range of bacterial diseases.
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Was variolation used for anything else? I haven't heard of it, so I don't think it was used in Europe at least.

Vaccination (for smallpox, using the related cowpox virus) was introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796; AFAIK the next major step was by Pasteur who found that weakened versions of bacteria could be used to immunize against anthrax and chicken cholera (1870s?).

And this was with (by then) a good understanding of germ theory.

OTL, a vaccine for yellow fever wasn't developed until 1837, apparently, and there are still diseases we don't have vaccines for.

So, I don't see that variolation is actually particularly extendable...
 
For malaria: earlier accidental discovery of quinine?
Actually, quinine will be discovered quickly as an anti-malarial agent - it was a fever-reducer, so would be given for any fever. If the fever is malaria, it kills the parasite.

OTOH, if you want any more than just the nobility to take it you probably need to increase the supply, and if many people take it, the malaria will 'quickly' develop resistance. So, I'm not sure that will do a whole lot of good for the long time survival of the civilization. Of course, protecting the kings and priests and wisemen/women would indeed help preserve continuity.

Where does chinchona (the tree from which quinine is extracted) grow? Is it only in Peru? if so, the availability down in the Amazon basin might be limited?
 

The Sandman

Banned
Actually, quinine will be discovered quickly as an anti-malarial agent - it was a fever-reducer, so would be given for any fever. If the fever is malaria, it kills the parasite.

OTOH, if you want any more than just the nobility to take it you probably need to increase the supply, and if many people take it, the malaria will 'quickly' develop resistance. So, I'm not sure that will do a whole lot of good for the long time survival of the civilization. Of course, protecting the kings and priests and wisemen/women would indeed help preserve continuity.

Where does chinchona (the tree from which quinine is extracted) grow? Is it only in Peru? if so, the availability down in the Amazon basin might be limited?

I'm fairly certain that it grows in the bit of Peru where the Amazonian headwaters are, so getting it into the Amazon basin isn't going to be all that difficult.
 
I'm fairly certain that it grows in the bit of Peru where the Amazonian headwaters are, so getting it into the Amazon basin isn't going to be all that difficult.

Actually its going to be impossible, due to the insanely stringent environmental demands of the Cinchona - the main one of which being unable to grow below an altitude of 1000ft, and in sufficently well drained areas of continual rainfall, and thats before you get into its soil needs - there's nowhere in South America any of the species will grow outside the North Peru-Ecuador-Columbia arc they're already extant in.

Additionally that highland production is limited due to the difficulty in locating and tending groves in the mountain valleys, and the ease with which one can wipe out a whole crop. About the only place the plant grows happily, ie at levels sufficent to aide whole populations is Java and Sumatra (and maybe Costa Rica and some inland African regions) - and they're a bit out of range for the Amazonians...
 
@Nugax: Quite right.

However on the issue of not knowing enough, there is a solution. Mostly to do with the fact that in any plausible scenario a great number of them would be dead. With a mass population die off like that, peoples tend to move and change, and we can sort of make stuff up. Its not perfect, but its better then nothing, and theres no way to prove that you're wrong per se.
 
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