When the mummified body of a prehistoric man was discovered in cased in ice in the alps of northern Italy back in 1991, it was like stumbling upon a 5,000-year-old time capsule.

Along with his remarkably preserved body, the ice man also introduced researchers to well-preserved examples of prehistoric clothing, weapons, and tools, and something else.

It was a lump of organic matter about the size of a walnut that had been strung onto a leather strap to keep it safe.

After getting the unusual object under a microscope, microbiologists realized what it was, a fungus known as Pyptoporus Vettulinus.

And this fungus has an amazing property. It contains essential oils that kill off parasitic bacteria.

For a prehistoric hunter traveling through all sorts of harsh environments and eating anything he could find, this fungus would have acted as a sort of antibiotic.

Humans, it seems, have been medicating themselves for millennia, and while the reasons have always been the same, to relieve the symptoms of illness and disease, those tools of medicine have very greatly over the years.

Every new wave of sickness has driven us to find better solutions, fresh cures, and powerful weapons with which to fight back.

So when a fresh wave of disease swept across America in the late 1800s, one community decided to use every tool at their disposal.

The solution they proposed withling heavily on both social compassion and the power of 19th century medicine.

It was their last stand against a disease that was killing so many people.

And that desperation meant that no option was left off the table, however drastic it might be, and honestly, it's hard to blame them.

But when the experiment ended five decades later, it was far from a success.

In fact, while countless lives were saved, they were paid for with blood.

Fighting back, it seems, can often lead to horrific results.

I'm Aaron Manky, and this is lore.

They called it the white plague. It can be found in historical records dating back thousands of years, from the ancient Near East and India to China and Africa.

Classical writers such as the Greek physician Hippocrates and the historian Herodotus all mentioned it within their body of work.

Every culture had a name for it, and all of them meant roughly the same thing. Death from within.

When European culture moved into the 19th century, the illness became sort of a romantic focal point and took on the poetic title of the white plague.

But it was easy for those who remain untouched by its effects to paint it so lovingly.

To many, it was just another disease. One, they called consumption.

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