Chapter 11 "Lethal Gift of Livestock" Summary and Analysis

The major infectious diseases of recent history, including smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera, all evolved from the diseases of animals. Diseases have been the biggest killer of people and, as such, they are an important factor in history, influencing societies in various ways.

Diamond briefly discusses how infectious diseases and their microbes work. Microbes evolve like other living things, selecting those most effective in reproducing and helping them spread to suitable environments. Germs are passed in many ways. Some pass from one host eating another; some are passed through the saliva of an insect when it bites an old host and is passed to a new one. Some modify the anatomy or habits of the host to accelerate their transmission, like open sores, etc., some are passed through...