Home > History Fact Finder > Medicine and Disease - When Did Biological Warfare Originate?

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

When did biological warfare originate?

Biological warfare dates from the late Middle Ages (A.D. c. 450–c.1500). In 1343 the Tartars (a nomadic tribe from east central Asia) used the bubonic plague, also called the Black Death, against Italians in a battle in the Crimea (present-day Ukraine). The Tartars had caught the almost-always fatal bubonic plague, which is caused by the bacteria Pasteurella pestis and passed to humans by fleas that have bitten infected rats. During the battle the Tartars attacked an Italian trading post, using catapults to launch the dead bodies of their sick comrades over the walls. Many of the enemy became ill and spread the plague to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) and from there to Western Europe.

In the twentieth century, chemicals such as mustard gas were used extensively on the battlefield in World War I (1914–18). The use of microorganisms or toxins...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Origins
   1. How did early humans cure illness and disease?
   2. Who was the first doctor in history?
   3. What is the Hippocratic Oath?
   4. What are the four humors?
   5. When did biological warfare originate?
   6. Were there hospitals before the Middle Ages?
   7. When was the first North American hospital built?
   8. What advances were made in medicine during the Renaissance?
   9. How old is the concept of public health?
   10. What is Gray's Anatomy?
2. Modern Medicine
   1. When did modern medicine begin?
   2. Who invented vaccination?
   3. When did modern surgery begin?
   4. When was anesthesia first used?
   5. What surgical advances were introduced in the late twentieth century?
   6. Who introduced the use of antiseptics in hospitals?
   7. What are Louis Pasteur's contributions to the study of disease?
   8. When were antibiotics invented?
   9. Why are new antibiotics constantly being developed?
   10. Why is Florence Nightingale famous?
   11. When was the International Red Cross founded?
   12. Who discovered the X ray?
   13. Who was Clara Barton?
   14. What were the Curies' contributions to medicine?
   15. How did Jonas Salk and Albert B. Sabin save lives?
   16. When did the first heart transplant take place?
   17. When was the first test-tube baby born?
   18. When was the first kidney transplant?
   19. What is leprosy?
   20. What is the plague?
   21. Is yellow fever still a deadly disease?
   22. What was the first disease conquered by humans?
   23. Do scientists know when the AIDS virus first appeared?
   24. Who was Typhoid Mary?
   25. Has the flu ever reached epidemic proportions?
   26. What are CT and MRI scans?
3. Psychology
   1. Why are Pavlov's dogs famous?
   2. What is behaviorism?
   3. What were Sigmund Freud's contributions to the study of human psychology?
   4. What does the term "Jungian" mean?
   5. Who was Dorothea Dix
   6. What is depression?

1. The Black Death