{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/605",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 605,
    "subject": "S. Delage",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-05-12T14:52:28+00:00",
    "last": "1998-05-13T23:28:26+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0011-0005@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan'l Danehy Oakes",
        "address": "ddanehyo at us.oracle.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-12T14:52:28+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) S. Delage",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "William:  the smallpox bit won't wash, not in a quilt from \nAmerican Revolution times.  While the idea of leprosy coming \nthrough infected items might have occurred to some colonists \n(via the Biblical precepts thereon), it's unlikely that \nanyone would have tried to pass smallpox on through germ \nwarfare in those pre-van-Leewenhoek days.\n\nCraig:  "
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Good points, but how about this well-known quote from Hamlet?\n\"Neither a borrower nor a lender be\""
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Umm, no.  That was Polonius; the way it's phrased it's clear \nthat we're talking about something Hamlet himself says.\n\nActually, Hamlet has a number of quotables.  Some of these\nwill be a bit vague on exact wording, it's been _years_, but\nI'll bet you'll recognize them all.\n\n\"The time is out of joint; o cursed spite\n that ever I was born to put it right!\"\n\n\"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king\nof infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.\"\n\n\"...smile, and smile, and be a villain...\"\n\n\"Get thee to a nunnery!\"\n\n\"I am mad only north by northwest; when the wind is [in the \neast?] I can tell a hawk from a handsaw.\"\n\nNeed I add that any of these, except possibly the first,\n_might_ be brought to bear on S.D. ... ?\n\nRoach"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0011-0031@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "William H. Ansley",
        "address": "wansley at warwick.net"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-13T23:28:26+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) S. Delage",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0011-0005@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "From \"Dan'l Danehy Oakes\":"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "William:  the smallpox bit won't wash, not in a quilt from\nAmerican Revolution times.  While the idea of leprosy coming\nthrough infected items might have occurred to some colonists\n(via the Biblical precepts thereon), it's unlikely that\nanyone would have tried to pass smallpox on through germ\nwarfare in those pre-van-Leewenhoek days."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Uh, well, actually it washes quite nicely, thank you very much.\n\nSince Anton van Leeuwenhoek lived from 1632 to 1723, I don't see how his\ndiscovery of micro-organisms rules out \"germ warfare\" being used in\n\"American Revolution times\" (remember, in the story this was any time up to\n1799) even if we postulate that only a person who knew germs existed could\nconceive of trying to use bedding from smallpox victims to pass the disease\non to others, a postulate I find very doubtful.\n\nBut, I was motivated to find where I had read that this had happened and,\nfortunately, it wasn't hard. It is on p. 251 of _Plagues and Peoples_ [1]:\n\n-----------\nThe ravages of smallpox among Indians may in fact have been assisted by\ndeliberate efforts at germ warfare. In 1763, for instance, Lord Jeffery\nAmherst ordered that blankets infected with smallpox be distributed among\nenemy tribes, and the order was acted on. Whether the result was as\nexpected seems not recorded.\n-----------\n\nNow, this is a fairly well-known work and it seems likely to me that Wolfe\nhas read it, since he seems to be a history buff (to put it mildly) and it\nprovides a unusual interpretation of history.\n\nIn any case, I stand by my theory. (Although my original post about it was\nmuch too long, rambling and maudlin. Sorry. Fatigue affects me that way. I\nneed to observe my bedtime more strictly from now on.)\n\n[1] William H. MacNeill, _Plagues and Peoples_, 1976, Anchor\nPress/Doubleday, Garden City, New York. ISBN: 0-385-11256-4\n\nWilliam Ansley"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}