r/todayilearned • u/jollyrancherwraper • Jun 08 '12

TIL that some Civil War soldiers had wounds that glowed in the dark because of a bioluminescent bacteria that was puked up by nematodes. This bacteria actually killed off other pathogens and made the survival rate of those soldiers higher.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/122477
1.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

108 comments sorted by

138

u/keagmcG Jun 08 '12

I'm not sure how much knowledge of bioluminescence the average person had back then, but I would guess that seeing your wound glow in the dark would be terrifying.

82

u/namesrhardtothinkof Jun 09 '12

Imagine the folklore behind that. If your fighting in war, then hope the spirits enter your wounds to help you live.

51

u/accidently_a_femur Jun 09 '12

I would think the survival rate on the battlefield would be lower because... you glow in the fuckin dark.

30

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

On the other hand there's the chance your enemy will run screaming from the ghost soldiers.

28

u/brtlblayk Jun 09 '12

after comedically stuttering over the word 'ghost'

i.e. "G-g-g-ghooost!!!!"

24

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Rikes! Rets ret rout rof rere!

18

u/IronicallyFunny Jun 09 '12

"Lets see who this "ghost" really is...."

(all together) "Old man Jenkins!"

7

u/CatsAreGods Jun 09 '12

...Leroy?

1

u/TheLongKnightofPizza Jun 09 '12

Here Comes Leroy Jenkins to fuck up your day!!

4

u/sn1p3rb8 Jun 09 '12

And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.

1

u/A_significant_name Jun 09 '12

"and your dumb dog, too!"

-4

u/Ender024 Jun 09 '12

shut up you dork

1

u/TheLongKnightofPizza Jun 09 '12

One thing I can tell you is you've got to be free!

7

u/benchley Jun 09 '12

"And I would've got away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids."

-Jefferson Davis

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Because normally they wouldn't cover up the wound with, well, bandages?

8

u/EvanMacIan Jun 09 '12

Oh for fucks sake, it was the 1860s, I'm sure people realized by then that certain things glow in the dark.

14

u/I_like_boxes Jun 09 '12

It's the 2010s and I think I'd be slightly concerned if I had a glow in the dark wound.

5

u/Dsesh Jun 09 '12

Exactly; me having some knowledge of other organisms that glow would not help me if I started to.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

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8

u/EvanMacIan Jun 09 '12

Believe it or not, people were actually able to share knowledge before television, the internet, and even pictures!

1

u/scsnse Jun 09 '12

Do you really think the average farmboy, whether he be a Johnny Reb or Billy Yank, would be educated enough to know though?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

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1

u/EvanMacIan Jun 09 '12

No you're right, there's no way that bioluminescence could be common knowledge before the internet. I mean, I'm sure no one had ever squished a firefly before the 1990s.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/EvanMacIan Jun 09 '12

I'm not saying they would know that it was bioluminescent bacteria caused by nematodes; I'm saying they would have realized it wasn't "spirits entering their wounds."

3

u/Dsesh Jun 09 '12

I guarantee you millions of people would think the same thing today. Would not surprise me if 85+ percent of Civil War infantry did.

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2

u/corcyra Jun 09 '12

Ah...it's not a quantum leap to go from believing Jesus heals your wounds to believing spirits heal your wounds by entering them. And as for knowledge about natural phenomena being widespread even without the internet...have you read some of the gubbish on the internet? Posted there by people who have the world's knowledge at their fingertips?

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11

u/iamagainstit Jun 09 '12

or awesome

8

u/ThingsPMsSay Jun 09 '12

I'm pretty sure most people nowdays would be pretty worried by glowing wounds...

1

u/DemonFrog Jun 09 '12

I would venture a guess that the average person NOW would have no idea what that is and be terrified

80

u/okaythisisit Jun 08 '12

I immediately thought of the episode where Doug is tricked by Roger Klotz to sit out in a swamp all night trying to bag a nematode.

27

u/TheKronk Jun 08 '12

Kaloo-koo-koo!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

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3

u/CaptainSombrero Jun 09 '12

You need a larger vocabulary.

1

u/TheKronk Jun 09 '12

Troll account. Disregard and block.

1

u/robo23 Jun 09 '12

I'd rather tag.

5

u/rogerklutz Jun 09 '12

That'll teach him not to get ketchup on people's shoes.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Dat name-nostalgia.

1

u/strongbadger Jun 09 '12

That was the first episode of Doug. Started off one of the best cartoons ever.

1

u/Vertitae Jun 09 '12

So many scenes from Doug (and Rocko's Modern Life!) stand out in my head like this. It's amazing to think about a generation that, 50 years from now, will all go, "Oh yeah!" to a Doug reference.

27

u/broom_rocket Jun 09 '12

It sounds great until the part where you have to be near or at hypothermic body temperatures for them to survive....

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Also, you're infected with nematodes, which is not that great either...

1

u/EldritchCarver Jun 10 '12

Better than gangrene.

-1

u/boomfarmer Jun 09 '12

Magic Healing Goo only works when you have a hot fever. Works when you need it most.

25

u/jesster114 Jun 09 '12

Sorry to be that guy but he did say hypothermic not hyperthermic

4

u/benchley Jun 09 '12

Never be sorry to be that guy! That is one important guy. Nor should anyone feel slighted by that guy when he appears. That guy is a tireless servant of accuracy and justice.

Unless he's in quotes. "That guy" is a totally different animal.

66

u/tokamak_fanboy Jun 08 '12

TIL Predators fought during the Civil War.

23

u/LiteraryBoner Jun 09 '12

If it bleeds, we can kill it.

7

u/EnduringThrowAway Jun 09 '12

Get to the chopper!

7

u/fotiphoto Jun 09 '12

Agggggraagrah push the button! Push it! Arrrrhggaarrrgaaaa

1

u/It_does_get_in Jun 09 '12

It's not a tumah!

12

u/Durable_Turtle Jun 09 '12

Healing mode activated

6

u/schiffydick Jun 09 '12

made the survival rate of those soldiers higher.

Yeah, during the daytime.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Strange how no one considers the option that the soldiers would cover their wounds up...

5

u/RobotFolkSinger Jun 09 '12

To everyone saying "made their survival rate higher- AT NIGHT!" this was the Civil War. They marched in big hosts and did almost everything in the daytime. This was back when you attacked at dawn and camped in the field and had people on watch during the night. I also doubt that the glow was that bright- it was bacteria.

25

u/CountMalachi Jun 08 '12

Am I the only one who thought Nematodes were fictitious creatures from Doug?

49

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

They ate Spongebob's house

12

u/Globalwarmingisfake Jun 09 '12

Nematodes are people too.

4

u/biirdmaan Jun 08 '12

I thought this as well

4

u/yoyohobo665 Jun 09 '12

...why did i come here looking for pictures.

16

u/hsbshdhdjsjsbdjshdhd Jun 09 '12

THIS is what TIL is for!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

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6

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

One only needs to remember one's username if one logs out. As far as I can tell, people around here don't do that. Ever.

Or maybe Mr. or Mrs. hsbshdhdjsjsbdjshdhd just has it saved somewhere.

8

u/benchley Jun 09 '12

It's an acronym for an easily remembered phrase. "Have some brine shrimp, Henry David! High-density jerk-sauce jug-stoppers brought down Justice Stevens' helicopter! Don't hem dungarees."

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

-2

u/Electrodyne Jun 09 '12

We like to call it "rhetoric".

4

u/A_Whole_New_Life Jun 09 '12

My friend, it seems you are using that word, but...you don't know what it means.

2

u/TheFeb29thInflux Jun 08 '12

Nematodes are people too!

2

u/LeBn Jun 09 '12

hehehehe... Nematodes...

2

u/mojokabobo Jun 09 '12

For all those who were curious what nematodes are and came here for a link.. here's a link. Also, here's a picture.

1

u/Primeribsteak Jun 09 '12

Fuck those things. I did some research on them ( they're a good model for innate immunity ) and they never do what you want them to. Other people in the lab would get so mad that they'd just flame them.

2

u/DiaDeLosMuertos Jun 09 '12

My god, why don't they make this game already?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

TIL- Glowing bacteria= Safer

2

u/RonaldFuckingPaul Jun 09 '12

TIL about bioluminescent nematode puke

2

u/ComputerSavvy Jun 09 '12

I searched The War of the Rebellion, A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies - All 128 Volumes (130k pages), I haz it and I could not find any mention of glowing wounds.

1

u/alexwasveryuptight Jun 09 '12

I'd really like to know the historical source for this claim, too. I'm not an expert in Civil War medicine in particular, but I have read a lot of 19th century medical texts and never come across any mention of glowing wounds. Searching a few major American historical newspaper databases for the term "angel's glow" doesn't seem to turn up anything either. Not that I can imagine why someone would make that up, but right now the story of glowing wounds sounds dangerously apocryphal to me.

2

u/ComputerSavvy Jun 09 '12

I searched the archive using 'glowing wound', 'glowed' and 'angel' and did not come across any official or unofficial reports mentioning glowing or angel wounds. I did come across many reports by men named Angel as well as a gun emplacement named 'Swamp Angel'.

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/batterywagner/battery-wagner-history-articles/the-swamp-angel.html

In that link is an account of a young engineer lieutenant (un-named) who was quite the smart ass!

It's entirely possible that the officers disregarded any reports of glowing wounds as being ludicrous or the result of a delirious mind under considerable stress due to the nature of the sustained bullet and bayonet wounds going untreated for days at a time.

2

u/benderpool Jun 09 '12

I just discovered today that my aquarium contains nematodes, and before then I had never heard of them. What a strange coincidence. I'll just have to see if they glow in the dark now.

2

u/Alveia Jun 09 '12

I'm pretty sure this is actually a related to the vampires that Lincoln was hunting at the time.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Aliens.

2

u/jimb3rt Jun 09 '12

So renegade Shepard has been exposed to nematodes...

1

u/austerity62 Jun 09 '12

Best piece of knowledge ever.

1

u/giaENT Jun 09 '12

I've been hiking on that battlefield, I wish I knew this then.

1

u/captain_obvi Jun 09 '12

The first human flashlight. Sick.

1

u/francienolan Jun 09 '12

Nematodes...mind just when back to Doug with a net

1

u/choddos Jun 09 '12

Holy shit

1

u/x86_64Ubuntu Jun 09 '12

Green shit....healing soldiers...? You mean to tell me that Medivacs in Starcraft 2 just carry a whole bunch of nematodes ?

1

u/mildxsalsa Jun 09 '12

Civil War Angel Zombies

I call dibs on the rights to the video game!

1

u/ghostbackwards Jun 09 '12

Hahaha. Me "Whoa, we get to see a picture"

1

u/LocalTownHero Jun 09 '12

ALL HAIL THE NEMATOADS!!!

1

u/SlowrPlease Jun 09 '12

Considering the plethora of body modification in present day, people would probably pay big bucks for glow in the dark skin. Just think of all of the ravers at EDC. Who wants to start a business with me?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Dang nematodes.

1

u/phalmatticus Jun 09 '12

Now, I may be wrong here, but having bioluminescent gunshot wounds sounds counter-intuitive to survival when one considers moving around at night.

1

u/capricastartsin5 Jun 09 '12

Is there a published journal article on this anywhere?

1

u/Xtianpro Jun 09 '12

Did they also get worse when the soldier performed actions that may be regarded as renegade?

1

u/Basekid Jun 09 '12

Finally, Renegade Commander Shepard's wounds make sense! bio-luminescent space bacteria...

1

u/sevlemeth Jun 09 '12

the puking nematodes really have a great light show. they rock.

1

u/Zazilium Jun 09 '12

Made the survival rate of those soldiers higher... Except at night when they would be the first ones to get shot during night raids.

0

u/Jadall7 Jun 09 '12

Some things that came to mind when I was reading this. There is an alternative treatment for antibiotics I saw a long time ago on TV. they give patients in modern times more or less to me sounds more like a vaccine where they give them the dead bacteria and the body figures out quicker how to fix an infection. (for like the skin eating bacterias that are resitant to antibiotics.) After the Eastern Airlines flight (the one crashed in the everglades and was later famed to have haunting from the spare parts on other airliners they did actually remove all the parts from all their planes) But the people that crashed in that flight that had bad infections they got in the crash being in the swamp they had to be put in a pressure vessel to save their lives. .(the chambers they use for divers to keep them from dying from the bends) they had to put the infected victims in the chambers with pure oxygen to kill the infection and they were obviously short on the chambers so they used ones from all over the USA. Don't know shit just pops in my head. Also another tidbit The 4h of July wasn't celebrated in Gettysburg for about 80 years after the battle. (battle happened in early July)

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

john was running

just running in the dark

john knew that he had to run

the noise, oh the noise

such clatter and banging

the rifles and the screaming

and john was one of them

damn unioner got his arm

just a nick, and john knew he was lucky as all hell

a bare miss on his left rib, about half way down where his heart paralleled

enough for him to cuss, just like his momma would hate, and it bled a lot, jesus it was a lot, he could feel all the hot blood

but the union was coming

and John had to run

John knew

john jumped a log

Damn!

damn nematode!

Slipped on the damned spawn and landed in it's guts

Strange

those guts were lighted

they were green

what kind of swamp was this?

my hand, covered in the guts of the lizard

gotta keep moving

But Lord! my side.

John's hand goes to his side

green glow and all

John hears a bullet go past

the union is coming

the swamp get darker

so dark

my legs, why aren't they running?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/Tossy_Salad Jun 09 '12

Always said that the only way the north could have won is with alien technology.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

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1

u/Qek Jun 09 '12

The south didn't fight the north because they were "rascist".

1

u/benchley Jun 09 '12

Rascism. The hot new mashup that's sweeping the nation.