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Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600

Yale, , Prof. Frank Snowden

Updated On 02 Feb, 19

Overview

Introduction to the Course - Classical Views of Disease: Hippocrates, Galen, and Humoralism - Plague:Pestilence as Disease,Responses and Measures,Illustrations and Conclusions - Smallpox:The Speckled Monster,Jenner, Vaccination, and Eradication - Nineteenth-Century Medicine: The Paris School of Medicine - Asiatic Cholera:Personal Reflections,Five Pandemics - The Sanitary Movement and the 'Filth Theory of Disease' - Syphilis: From the - Contagionism versus Anticontagionsim - The Germ Theory of Disease - Tropical Medicine as a Discipline - Malaria:The Case of Italy,The Global Challenge - Tuberculosis:The Era of Consumption,After Robert Koch - Pandemic Influenza - The Tuskegee Experiment - AIDS - Poliomyelitis: Problems of Eradication - SARS, Avian Inluenza, and Swine Flu: Lessons and Prospects

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Lecture 11: The Sanitary Movement and the Filth Theory of Disease

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Lecture Details

Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 (HIST 234)

The sanitary movement was an approach to public health first developed in England in the 1830s and 40s. With increasing industrialization and urbanization, the removal of filth from towns and cities became a major focus in the struggle against infectious diseases. As pioneered by Edwin Chadwick, the sanitary movement also embraced an explicit political objective, according to which urban cleansing took on a figurative as well as a literal sense, and was seen as a potential solution to the threat posed by the "dangerous classes." European cities followed suit, with Paris and Naples embarking on wholesale rebuilding projects, necessitating large-scale state intervention. Although these technological reforms marked an undeniable step forward for public health, they often also entailed the exclusion of other strategies, such as progressive economic and educational reforms.

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website httpopen.yale.educourses

This course was recorded in Spring 2010.