Does anyone have an earlier cite?
[insert Larson cartoon of the first fly on a beached whale yelling “DIBS!” here]
Interesting.
Gypsies used to steal sperm whale brains.
I think you are totally misreading this. Calves are what you call whale babies also. And eating them makes you look like them. You are what you eat. So much so you look like a cannibal eating baby whale brains. So no.
If there is it would be referenced in this excellent book on prion diseases:
http://www.amazon.com/Family-That-Couldnt-Sleep-Unravelling/dp/1846270901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459391549&sr=8-1&keywords=the+family+that+couldn%27t+sleep+unravelling+a+venetian+medical+mystery
Very interesting. Passed it onto my wife (neurologist) for review.
Scrapie was the first prion related disease dating back to 1730.
Prions and Prion disease
Prion diseases, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE’s) are a group of progressive neurodegenerative conditions. These illnesses exist in both animals and humans. Scrapie, a disease affecting sheep and goats, was the first prion disease to be identified in the 1730s. In more recent years other prion diseases have been seen in animals, the most common of which is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Various forms of the disease have been identified since Creutzfeldt and Jakob first described the illness later known as CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in the 1920s. These diseases in humans are now grouped together according to whether they are sporadic, inherited, or acquired.
Sperm Whales are bovines? I never knew.
I saw an episode of Magnum PI where Magnum was quarantined for Ebola.