[Gladwin]

I don't know how far rats travel, or really much about the bubonic plague.

[mewzilla]

FWIW, two excellent books on infectious disease:

Evolution of Infectious Disease, by Paul Ewald; and The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. Garrett has another book out on public health issues that I haven't read, but it's supposed to be very informative.

[trevorjohnson]

It was second-hand smoking that killed'em