11th April 2013, 07:23 PM
Oh dear, I've been involved in publishing an interesting group of 18th century rinderpest cattle burials - maybe in the past we didn't catch stuff because we didn't know the hazards? Bit like the older people on here having been encouraged to stick their hands in bowls of mercury during science lessons at school with no apparent long-term effect, whereas kids nowadays aren't allowed in the same room as the stuff...