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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

Includes

Lecture 13: Contagionism versus Anticontagionsim

4.1 ( 11 )


Lecture Details

Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 (HIST 234)

The debate between contagionists and anticontagionists over the transmission of infectious diseases played a major role in nineteenth-century medical discourse. On the one side were those who believed that diseases could be spread by infected material, perhaps including people and inanimate objects, and on the other those who subscribed to the more venerable miasmatic theory. Although the contagionist view would be substantially vindicated by Robert Kochs germ theory of disease, it is important not to simply ignore the arguments put forward by the anticontagionists. Although these were based on science that has since been disproven, the concrete proposals put forward by scientists like Max von Pettenkofer marked a major step forward for public health policy. In particular, the anticontagionists emphasis on the environmental factors of disease control continues to provide an important lesson.

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

This course was recorded in Spring 2010.

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Sam

Excellent course helped me understand topic that i couldn't while attendinfg my college.

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Dembe

Great course. Thank you very much.

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