What if Napoleon discoveres a cure for dysentery?

Bacillus subtilis discovered as a cure for dysentery in OTL

The bacillus subtilis was discovered by the Nazi German medical corps in 1941, toward the end of their African campaign. At the time, the German military victory was at its height. But the German high command became genuinely alarmed when hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers in North Africa suddenly began dying every week. Oddly, the Nazi soldiers weren't dying because of British General Montgomery's retaliatory bombs and shrapnel, but instead, they were dying of uncontrollable dysentery.

Of course, the Germans were aware that dysentery was caused by pathogenic (i.e. disease-causing) bacteria from local food and water sources. But in those days, there were no antibiotics. Sulfur was already on the market, but only in a topical non-ingestible form. So with no medication available with which to stop the plague of dysentery, the Nazis quickly began looking for other means to help their dying soldiers.

The German high command immediately sent out a contingent of scientists, physicians, chemists, biochemists, bacteriologists and other experts to help solve the problem. With typical German circumspection, these top experts reasoned that there must be a natural way to counteract the deadly bacteria causing the dysentery because, if there wasn't, the millions of Arabs living in the region would have been dead long ago.

Therefore, the Germans' first step was to closely scrutinize the native Arabs, and see whether or not they were affected by dysentery. What they discovered was that the Arabs also caught dysentery, but at the first sign of diarrhea [the #1 symptom of dysentery --- Ed.] the Arabs would do something quite incredible: They would immediately begin following around a horse or camel until it would drop its dung. Then, the affected Arab would pick up the warm dung droppings, and quickly gulp them down! This strange procedure effectively eliminated the dysentery almost overnight.

Once the good hygienic Germans finally recovered from the shock of seeing the Arab natives gulping down warm camel dung, they quickly realized that there must be something in the dung that somehow counteracted the harmful bacteria that caused the dysentery. They questioned the Arabs, who told them that they had no idea why it worked, but that their fathers had always done so, as had their forefathers, and it had always worked. The only caveat was that the camel or horse dung had to be ingested while still warm and fresh, because it had no effect on the dysentery if ingested cold.

So the Nazis began carefully examining fresh camel and horse dung. What they discovered was that it was teeming with a powerful bacterial microorganism which later came to be called Bacillus subtilis. This bacteria, it turned out, is so strong that it practically cannibalizes all harmful microorganisms in the human body --- particularly pathogenic bacteria like the virulent strain which was causing dysentery in the German troops.

Within a very short time, the Nazis began producing hundreds and thousands of gallons of active Bacillus subtilis cultures for their troops to ingest. And bingo, no more dysentery! Soon afterwards, the Germans even discovered the process by which the Bacillus subtilis cultures could be dried and placed into easily ingestible capsules. From that time forward, the resourceful Germans had no more problems with losing troops from dysentery.

http://www.rense.com/general4/bac.htm

Ralph Lewin 2001: "More on Merde - Perspectives in Biology and Medicine


Discovery of Bacillus Subtilis in OTL

Bacillus subtilis is a Gram positive, rod shaped bacteria, commonly found in soil. It was originally named “Vibrio subtilis” when it was discovered in 1835 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg.

Potential Point of Divergence (POD)

Lets say that Napoleon had made the same discovery the Wehrmacht made during his time in Egypt (1798–1801). He should have the perfect combination of awareness about the importance of the discovery and the resources to pursue it. So Napoleon recruits France/Europes greatest minds and builds them a research laboratory. Since bacillus subtilis was discovered not too much later in OTL they might as well do so a bit earlier. Thanks to its ability to form protective spores it can also be transported, turned into pill form rather easily as OTL showed. How would such a development change history and the world?
 
I would guess they would have a harder time working out which organism in the dung provides the cure, so testing would take longer. Still in an era where disease deaths tended to rival or exceed combat deaths the effect on French manpower would likely be quite impressive (though growing cultures might be tricky at a large enough scale?).
 
I would guess they would have a harder time working out which organism in the dung provides the cure, so testing would take longer. Still in an era where disease deaths tended to rival or exceed combat deaths the effect on French manpower would likely be quite impressive (though growing cultures might be tricky at a large enough scale?).

I couldn’t find a satisfying answer quit yet. I did find something else related and interesting.

People meet Natto-Kun (Bacillus subtilis var. natto).

lzn13QU.jpg


Nattō (なっとう or 納豆) itself is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto. Sources differ about the earliest origin of nattō. The materials and tools needed to produce nattō commonly have been available in Japan since ancient times. It has been described as likely being an ancient food.
There is also the story about Minamoto no Yoshiie who was on a battle campaign in northeastern Japan between 1086 AD and 1088 AD when one day they were attacked while boiling soybeans for their horses. They hurriedly packed up the beans, and did not open the straw bags until a few days later, by which time the beans had fermented. The soldiers ate it anyway, and liked the taste, so they offered some to Yoshiie, who also liked the taste. It is even possible that the product was discovered independently at different times.

Medical Use

Apparently the Natto variant of Bacillus subtilis is also useful against certain disease:

„During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), the Japanese army ate rice and cooked soybeans three times a day. A Mr. Sakamoto from Fukushima prefecture is said to have made natto for his division using rice straw from horse fodder and the body warmth of his horse. His group reported to be the only one in Manchuria free of diarrhea, dysentery, and other stomach ailments . . . much the same phenomenon experienced in Korea by Kiyomasa Kato over 300 years earlier. Japan won the war and the military showed new interest in natto. However it seems to be a bit less potent and more useful as a prophylactic than standard bacillus subtilis. Although this is not quiet clear reading the available literature. At least some studies in Japan around 1920s 1930s found it to be helpful at preventing typhus and dysentery. It is clear however that bacillus subtilis and bacillus subtilis are not the same. The easiest way to find that out for people in this hypothetical timeline is that natto can create natto and regular subtilis can not.

Potential POD before/alternative to the Napoleon shenanigans

As in OTL microscopes are invented in the Netherlands during the 17th century. It it is unclear when exactly they reached Japan. Clear descriptions of microscopes are made in the 1720 Nagasaki Night Stories Written (長崎夜話草Nagasaki Yawasō) and in the 1787 book Saying of the Dutch. Although Europeans mainly used microscopes to observe small cellular organisms, the Japanese mainly used them for entomological purposes, creating detailed descriptions of insects.
Lets say some Japanese scholar interested in the mystery of Natto fermentation discovers the role of bacillus subtilis natto and cultivates them. He would have three nice advantages, Natto was already mass produced, its medical properties were somewhat known and agar (the stuff in petri dishes) would have been readily available for further experiments in microbiology.
Agar or agar-agar is a jelly-like substance, obtained from algae. It was discovered in the late 1650s or early 1660s by Mino Tarōzaemon (美濃 太郎左衛門) in Japan, where it is called kanten (寒天).

Sources

“Welcome to the Microbiome: Getting to Know the Trillions of Bacteria and Other Microbes In, On, and Around You” by Rob DeSalle (Author), Susan L. Perkins (Author), Patricia J. Wynne

“History of Natto and Its Relatives” by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi

“Soy in Health and Disease Prevention” by Michihiro Sugano

Wikipedia
 
The more I think about it the more fun this POD becomes. Please don't become distracted by this stuff and continue to discuss the original question:extremelyhappy: !

Here some is some supplementary art I came up with:

(1a) A page cover for a hypothecial timeline.
hvsgZDU.jpg



(1b) A page cover for a hypothecial timeline.

vl19a9X.png



(2) OTL
Culpeper Microscope
Metal、Wood
Ca.1737
Union Optical Co., Ltd.
(deposited with Koga City Museum of History)
7J3EDDa.png


(3)
A Japanese Propaganda Poster in a Hypothetical Timeline
Rd1ZgX2.jpg
 
Last edited:
I couldn’t find a satisfying answer quit yet. I did find something else related and interesting.

People meet Natto-Kun (Bacillus subtilis var. natto).

lzn13QU.jpg


Nattō (なっとう or 納豆) itself is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto. Sources differ about the earliest origin of nattō. The materials and tools needed to produce nattō commonly have been available in Japan since ancient times. It has been described as likely being an ancient food.
There is also the story about Minamoto no Yoshiie who was on a battle campaign in northeastern Japan between 1086 AD and 1088 AD when one day they were attacked while boiling soybeans for their horses. They hurriedly packed up the beans, and did not open the straw bags until a few days later, by which time the beans had fermented. The soldiers ate it anyway, and liked the taste, so they offered some to Yoshiie, who also liked the taste. It is even possible that the product was discovered independently at different times.

Medical Use

Apparently the Natto variant of Bacillus subtilis is also useful against certain disease:

„During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), the Japanese army ate rice and cooked soybeans three times a day. A Mr. Sakamoto from Fukushima prefecture is said to have made natto for his division using rice straw from horse fodder and the body warmth of his horse. His group reported to be the only one in Manchuria free of diarrhea, dysentery, and other stomach ailments . . . much the same phenomenon experienced in Korea by Kiyomasa Kato over 300 years earlier. Japan won the war and the military showed new interest in natto. However it seems to be a bit less potent and more useful as a prophylactic than standard bacillus subtilis. Although this is not quiet clear reading the available literature. At least some studies in Japan around 1920s 1930s found it to be helpful at preventing typhus and dysentery. It is clear however that bacillus subtilis and bacillus subtilis are not the same. The easiest way to find that out for people in this hypothetical timeline is that natto can create natto and regular subtilis can not.

Potential POD before/alternative to the Napoleon shenanigans

As in OTL microscopes are invented in the Netherlands during the 17th century. It it is unclear when exactly they reached Japan. Clear descriptions of microscopes are made in the 1720 Nagasaki Night Stories Written (長崎夜話草Nagasaki Yawasō) and in the 1787 book Saying of the Dutch. Although Europeans mainly used microscopes to observe small cellular organisms, the Japanese mainly used them for entomological purposes, creating detailed descriptions of insects.
Lets say some Japanese scholar interested in the mystery of Natto fermentation discovers the role of bacillus subtilis natto and cultivates them. He would have three nice advantages, Natto was already mass produced, its medical properties were somewhat known and agar (the stuff in petri dishes) would have been readily available for further experiments in microbiology.
Agar or agar-agar is a jelly-like substance, obtained from algae. It was discovered in the late 1650s or early 1660s by Mino Tarōzaemon (美濃 太郎左衛門) in Japan, where it is called kanten (寒天).

Sources

“Welcome to the Microbiome: Getting to Know the Trillions of Bacteria and Other Microbes In, On, and Around You” by Rob DeSalle (Author), Susan L. Perkins (Author), Patricia J. Wynne

“History of Natto and Its Relatives” by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi

“Soy in Health and Disease Prevention” by Michihiro Sugano

Wikipedia
So I guess there's some merit to the demon that natto wards off demons?
 
Top