What disease was plague? : on the controversy over the microbiological identity of plague epidemics of the past / by Ole J. Benedictow.

Leiden : Brill, 2010.

xvi, 746 pages : map ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The issue and the problems -- The ethics of scholarly work -- Rats -- The spread of bubonic plague over distances -- Mortality in india -- Was historical plague a viral or bacterial disease? : the question of immunity -- Defining feature 1 : latency periods -- Defining feature 2 : inverse correlation between mortality rate and population density -- Defining feature 3 : buboes as a normal clinical feature in epidemics -- Defining feature 4 : DNA of yersinia pestis from plague graves -- Defining feature 5 : seasonality of bubonic plague -- The beginning : the alternative theories of Shrewsbury and Morris -- Gunnar Karlsson's alternative theory : that historical plague was pure epidemics of primary pneumonic plague -- Twigg's alternative theory -- The alternative theory of Scott and Duncan -- Cohn's alternative theory.