Considerations on Palaeodemography and Death in the British Community of Bagni di Lucca (19th -20th Centuries)

The English community of Bagni di Lucca obtained permission by Carlo Ludovico di Borbone, Duke of Lucca, to build and organize in 1842 an autonomous burial ground. This British cemetery operated until the 1930s, with an amount of 137 burials. The “Register of Burials – Baths of Lucca”, preserved in the Guildhall Library of London (Ms. 22,910), accurately reports: name, sex, age, marital status and residence, date of burial, name by whom the ceremony was performed and notes about social status and profession of the dead. It was possible, using these data, to obtain some palaeo-demographic information about age of death, in general adult or mature, but with presence of children and babies, about seasonality of deaths, generally in Summer, and sometimes about the cause of death

Contribution of Raman Spectroscopy to Diagnosis and Grading of Chondrogenic Tumors

In the last decade, Raman Spectroscopy has demonstrated to be a label-free and non-destructive optical spectroscopy able to improve diagnostic accuracy in cancer diagnosis. This is because Raman spectroscopic measurements can reveal a deep molecular understanding of the biochemical changes in cancer tissues in comparison with non-cancer tissues. In this pilot study, we apply Raman spectroscopy imaging to the diagnosis and grading of chondrogenic tumors, including enchondroma and chondrosarcomas of increasing histologic grades. The investigation included the analysis of areas of 50×50 μm2 to approximately 200×200 μm2, respectively. Multivariate statistical analysis, based on unsupervised (Principal Analysis Components) and supervised (Linear Discriminant Analysis) methods, differentiated between the various tumor samples, between cells and extracellular matrix, and between collagen and non-collagenous components. The results dealt out basic biochemical information on tumor progression giving the possibility to grade with certainty the malignant cartilaginous tumors under investigation. The basic processes revealed by Raman Spectroscopy are the progressive degrading of collagen type-II components, the formation of calcifications and the cell proliferation in tissues ranging from enchondroma to chondrosarcomas. This study highlights that Raman spectroscopy is particularly effective when cartilaginous tumors need to be subjected to histopathological analysis

L'arrivo delle mummie precolombiane a Firenze

The present article describes the events relating to the acquisition of some pre-Columbian mummies by the National Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, at present Section of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence, between the late 19th and early 20th century. The article also illustrates the paleopathological results obtained from the study of two mummies, called FI6 and FI9; on the latter, in particular, it was possible to diagnose, for the first time in paleopathology, the Chagas’ disease, still endemic in South America

A 13th-century cystic echinococcosis from the cemetery of the monastery of Badia Pozzeveri (Lucca, Italy)

Objective: To differentially diagnose a calcified formation recovered from a 13th century AD grave from the Tuscan monastery of Badia Pozzeveri, Lucca, Italy. Materials: A calcified formation from the thoraco-abdominal region of a skeleton buried in the monastery cemetery. Methods: Cone Beam Computed Tomography, Scanning Electron Microscope and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy. Results: A hollow, calcified ovoid formation was identified as typical of a hydatid cyst, permitting the diagnosis of cystic echinococcosis in a 35-45year-old female. Conclusions: The study reveals the circulation of the parasite Echinococcus granulosus in the region of Lucca in late medieval Tuscany. Significance: This finding is the fourth case of cystic echinococcosis from an archaeological context in Italy and provides insight into environmental conditions that appear to have affected members of a community, irrespective of social status. Limitations: Caution and the application of multiple analyses must be exercised in the differential diagnosis to discriminate among calcified formations. Suggestions for further research: Analysis of stable isotopes of the calcified formation, such as 15N and 13C, in order to compare them with isotopic values of the host individual and to further confirm the parasitic origin of the find

The plague of 1630 in Modena (Italy) through the study of parish registers

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact this disease had on the community in Modena during the epidemic in 1630 and highlight the real course of the disease that brought Modena and whole Europe to its knees in the 17th century. The investigation was carried out by transcribing and studying the par-ish certificates of death for the period 1625-1635. This study confirmed that the plague epidemic in Modena began as early as 1629, and then exploded in the most virulent form since the beginning of summer 1630 and reached its peak in August of the same year, when it caused about seven hundred victim