Mummified corpses in Hungarian crypt reveal clues to tuberculosis origins

Hundreds of bodies found in Dominican church help epidemiologists explain how disease spread in the past

Samples from mummies in a Hungarian crypt have revealed that multiple tuberculosis strains derived from a single Roman ancestor that circulated in 18th-century Europe, scientists said Tuesday.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, drew on a remarkable, if gruesome, source.