On the cover: The Art of Medicine, marble ca. 1334-1336 by Andrea Pisano (Italian,1270-1349). Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Florence, Tuscany, Italy. Bridgeman Images. New York, NY. Reproduced with permission. In 1336-37, Andrea and his son Nino Pisano completed a set of 54 reliefs at the base of the Florentine campanile. These reliefs followed the general iconographic pattern of the scholastic writings of Vincent of Beauvais in his Speculum Majus (great mirror), a reflection of the universe. Medicine was included in one of the books in the Speculum. Although French scholastic thought was then a common philosophical framework, contemporary viewers would more readily identify the familiar scene from 14th-century Medicine. In this panel representing medicine, the doctor wears the characteristic clothing of a late medieval doctor, and the women carry woven bags containing urine specimens. The doctor examines the flask of urine, attempting to discern imbalances of the four humors (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm) and make a diagnosis. Not only the color, but also the consistency, clarity, and the presence of sediment all contributed to the physician’s diagnosis, which would have likely included some aberrations of color and odor caused by infections. However, the predisposition to categorize disease by the imbalance of the four humors did not yet lend itself to understanding the causes of infections, and the treatments were likewise ineffectual. (Mary & Michael Grizzard, Cover Art Editors)

On the cover: Egyptian Fruit Bat, color lithograph, ca. 1863–1869, by Raimundo Petraroja (Italian, fl. 1863–79). Private Collection. Bridgeman Images. Reproduced with permission. Active in the artist community of Naples from 1863 to 1879, Raymundo Petraroja produced a large number of images focused on wildlife and scenes from nature. In this image, he presents a detailed depiction of the Egyptian fruit bat (EFB). With an average wingspan of 24 inches, it was initially thought to be the only megabat species of its genus found on continental Africa and tends to live in large colonies that consist of thousands of individuals in their established roosts. It was not until a century later, however, that epidemiological patterns pointed to the EFB as the reservoir of Marburg Virus. Entry into caves and mines and direct contact with salivary secretions and urine of roosting EFB has frequently been linked to outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever among miners working in Uganda, Angola, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reverse transcriptase of salivary dampened specimens has subsequently confirmed the epidemiological pattern. Marburg Virus is a member of the same family as Ebola virus and produces a hemorrhagic fever with a case-fatality rate averaging 50%. Once introduced into the human population, Marburg virus can spread through human-to-human transmission via direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected people. How EFB can carry such deadly diseases without succumbing themselves remains a biologic mystery. (Mary & Michael Grizzard, Cover Art Editors)

On the cover: The Angel of Death (a Winged Skeletal Creature) Drops Some Deadly Substances into a River Near a Town; Representing Typhoid. The Wellcome Trust illustrated history of tropical diseases, London 1996, p. 24. Watercolor, 1912, after Richard Tennant Cooper (British: 1885-1957). Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain. One of several paintings by Richard Tennant Cooper commissioned in 1912 by Henry S. Wellcome, these depictions represented Cooper’s memories of World War I, in which he served as an official war artist while in the British Army and later in the Royal Engineers. He is also recognized as a distinguished graphic artist who depicted imaginary specters inflicting diseases on children and ghostly apparitions spreading death and destruction throughout England’s history. In this instance the wraith of typhoid is shown infecting a river with the deadly bacterium. After the war Cooper enjoyed a career as a graphic artist, designing posters displayed primarily as advertisements in the London Underground. (Mary & Michael Grizzard, Cover Art Editors)