Life and Health of Seventeenth-Century Infants Revealed by ‘Virtual Autopsies’

A young child found in an unmarked coffin in an Austrian catacombs is remarkably well-preserved, with bones and organs showing signs of rickets and pneumonia.

To Christa Leste-Laser

an infant born into an aristocratic Austrian family in the 17th century^th Century died of being overweight, but may have been deficient in vitamin D, according to researchers who performed a “virtual autopsy” on a mummified corpse.

A scan of the remarkably well-preserved cadavers revealed knotty expansions in the rib joints typical of rickets caused by vitamin D deficiency and a thick layer of fat. Andreas Nerlich of the Munich Bogenhausen Academic Clinic in Germany, said the findings suggest that the children died from overeating and underexposure to sunlight.

Nerlich and his colleagues examined the body of an infant after an unmarked wooden coffin was found in a basement near a castle in Upper Austria. The cellar had a constant air flow and a steady temperature, which probably helped dry the child’s body. It could be used for scientific research,” he says.

Combining radiocarbon dating of the remains with records of crypt construction, researchers estimated that the child was buried about 400 years ago. Considering the infant’s approximate age at death (10-18 months old) and the silk wraps that mark his aristocratic birth, they speculate that the child lived from his 1625 to his 1626, Stall We speculate that it is his Reichard Wilhelm, the eldest son of Count Henberg.

Based on computed tomography (CT) scans of the body, researchers confirmed the child was male, and his bone measurements and eruption of teeth were consistent with a child of about one year old.

Scans of his ribs revealed that they showed beaded rosaries, a condition typical of severe cases of rickets. Rickets is primarily caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, which is produced by the body when exposed to UV light. His leg bones were not crooked, a clear sign of rickets in older children.

The infant’s lungs became inflamed, suggesting that he may have died of pneumonia.The disease is known to occur more frequently in children with rickets.

“The combination of obesity and severe vitamin deficiencies can only be explained by a generally ‘good’ nutritional status, in addition to an almost complete lack of sun exposure.

Whether this combination of traits was common is unknown, but premature infant mortality was generally higher among the upper social classes during the Renaissance than it is today, says Nerlich.

Journal reference: medical frontierDOI: 10.3389/fmed.2022.979670