Unknown bacteria discovered on Basel mummy

According to a new study, Anna Catharina Bischoff is most likely suffering from a rare and previously unknown bacterial infection. The remains of Bischoff, who lived in the 18th century, were discovered 48 years ago in the Barfüsserkirche in Basel and became known as the Basel Mummy.

In a recent study, researchers got to the bottom of the cause of death. The previous suspicion of syphilis could not be confirmed.

The research groups led by anthropologist Gerhard Hotz of the Natural History Museum Basel and Mohamed Sarhan of the Institute for Mummies Studies in Bozen (I) actually wanted to use molecular genetic analysis to trace the DNA of the bacterial pathogen that causes syphilis, according to a statement from the Natural History Museum Basel on Tuesday. The results of the study were published in the journal “BMC Biology”.

Instead of the bacterial pathogen of syphilis, archaeogenetics is found in the However, tissue samples from the mummy’s brain showed a high concentration of a previously unknown species of mycobacteria. The bacterium belongs to a group that also includes the causative agents of leprosy and tuberculosis.

The authors suspect that Bischoff contracted this unusual bacterial infection. The symptoms of the disease were probably misdiagnosed as syphilis. Accordingly, the woman was recommended inhalation therapy with mercury vapors, a misdiagnosis with fatal consequences.

This treatment was used for syphilis until the 19th century. Most of the patients hoping for a cure for the disease died as a result of mercury poisoning.

The mummy was found in 1975 in the Barfüsserkirche in Basel and identified as Anna Catharina Bischoff, who died in 1787 at the age of 68. A review of the Church’s historical records revealed that the mummy had been discovered as early as the nineteenth century; for ethical reasons she was subsequently reburied on the spot where she was found in 1975.

(jam/sda)