Australian Science Illustrated – Issue 51 2017

72 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

In the wake of a lethal flu epidemic, another nightmarish

infection killed approximately one million people in the 1920s,

and turned the survivors into motionless statues. The mysterious

brain inflammation imprisoned its victims for months, years,

or even decades, and doctors did not know what to do.

MANY VICTIMS

were tied to a

wheelchair or bed, because they

entered into a deep, death-like sleep.

The Disease that

Created a Generation

of the Living Dead

FROM THE SCIENTIFIC ARCHIVES

100TH ANNIVERSARY

SLEEPY SICKNESS was the

nickname of the condition that

made people pass out.

FROZEN BODIES were taken to see neurologist

Constantin von Economo. He feared that an

epidemic was under way.

YOUTUBE

HISTORY EPIDEMICS