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O presente artigo busca analisar a maneira pela qual a noção de míasma se mostra indispensável para a compreensão do contágio e da peste em Édipo Rei. Para tanto, tratar-se-á de alguns excertos homéricos que demonstram a relação dos personagens com a purificação das mãos antes de ações cultuais, de um lado e, de outro lado, a abordagem que Ésquilo e Sófocles conferem sobre as noções de pureza e impureza. Por fim, será aprofundada a dimensão catastrófica que o míasma pode alcançar, por meio da tragédia Édipo Rei. Desse modo, busca-se sustentar a tese de que a peste contagiosa, em Édipo Rei, é fruto da própria sujeira do personagem-título, sujeira essa para a qual Édipo não providenciou uma limpeza adequada. Nesse sentido, procura-se desvincular da peça a noção de castigo divino, para sustentar que, na tragédia, o sangue possui extrema força como veículo de contaminação.

What sets this book apart from several others that address the Syrian miasma is its authors’ profile. The first is an Israeli academic with impressive credentials in anti-terrorism and security stu...

The essays collected in the book, comprehensively inclusive in its compass, offer the readers an invaluable array of theoretically rich tools to dispel the miasma, invoked globally after 1989, arou...

The Iron Gates gorge system is formed by the convergence of the Carpathians and Balkan mountain ranges that collide and plunge directly into the Danube River (Fig. 1). The geographical conditions of this region have created a frontier zone in different periods, and the historical context of this article deals specifically with the period between 1429 and c. 1435 when this castle system was placed under the control of a contingent from the Teutonic Order to help defend the Kingdom of Hungary against an impending Ottoman invasion. The Teutonic Order’s mission was a military expedition and King Sigismund’s use of a contingent from the Teutonic Order as a military force in this region was a part of his overall strategy to protect his kingdom from further invasion by Ottoman armies under Sultan Murad II (1404–1451). The Danube river, itself, at this time served as the frontier between the Kingdom of Hungary and the recently conquered Ottoman territory on the southern bank. The theme of this article centers on the application of traditional techniques of landscape archaeology to perform a military analysis of these fortifications in the Iron Gates castle chain using more novel avenues of research- given travel bans and other restrictions brought about by the on-going Corona-19 crisis.

The present paper examines the use and description of colonial medicine for cholera and its practices in J.G. Farrell’s historical novel, The Siege of Krishnapur (1973). The paper shows that by engaging the two doctors stationed at the British residency in Krishnapur in a debate, Farrell contextualises an episode in British medical history to foreground popular medical beliefs on the aetiology of cholera and its treatment prevalent in nineteenth century Britain. The paper then argues that Farrell’s critique of an outdated medicinal theory and welcoming of the scientific future of colonial medicine simultaneously is an attempt to reinstate the position of “civilised medicine” in colonial India. It further establishes a vital link between Farrell and cholera by bringing in contemporary contexts, and discusses how cholera served as a dual tool to not only satisfy his compulsive interest in disease and doctors but also his aspirations for historical creativeness.

The article deals with the epidemic of plague which happened in London in 1563. It is studied through the lens of sources connected with the Church of England, namely, the documents establishing extraordinary services, special homily written and published in the same year, and the correspondence of ecclesiastical as well as secular authorities. This approach leads to the conclusions of how the plague was understood by theologians, which measures (both, spiritual and practical) were considered to be efficient, and how the epidemic reflected in the administrative practice of the English church. The Early Modern people perceived plague as a supernatural calamity as it was sent by God in order to punish people for their sins and move them towards repentance. The natural mechanisms of plague’s spreading, most commonly explained through the theory of miasma, were nothing more but an instrument of God’s will. Thus, the reaction to the plague became primarily a matter spiritual which belonged to the competence of the church. Practical measures were inextricably entwined with the theological comprehension of the problem as well as the reasons of ecclesiastical policy. The London plague of 1563 was the first “great” epidemic for the reformed Church of England to face. The ecclesiastical administration introduced in cooperation with the secular authorities a special form of service and a homily for ‘this time of God’s visitation’ which determined the whole posterior tradition of reactions towards plague.

This article is a discussion of the issue of agency in an age defined by common challenges that manifest themselves both locally and globally. In particular, the author argues for a dispersed, non-linear understanding of individual agency as it relates to the global crisis of plastic waste as a way of examining and assessing strategies of change.

The article explores how Victorian visual culture was a vital force in the construction and dissemination of medical theories on the connection between climate and health. During the nineteenth century, the seemingly inexplicable and deadly nature of many epidemic diseases compelled British medics to investigate all possible reasons for their spread. Focusing on cholera, the article will examine how, in an effort to understand what was seen at the time as a mysterious disease, Victorian medics increasingly concentrated on the climate of India and unusual weather in Britain as propagators of the malady. Supplementing the dominant miasma theory, medics explained how the seemingly airborne sources of cholera resulted from a state of England’s air that resembled the tropical environment of the subcontinent. In an effort to highlight the correlation between cholera and the atmosphere, they produced medical climatology reports containing diagrams that juxtaposed the data on the disease’s mortality rates with measurements of meteorological phenomena. These images, rather than serving simply as illustrations, became a crucial part of medical arguments. As the article will demonstrate, in attempting to visualize the medical climatology of cholera, the diagrams mapped the disease to certain atmospheric conditions, suggesting that cholera could be quantified and controlled. Yet, in doing so, the images also implied that cholera had a real material presence in the air of Britain, powerfully evoking visual tropes of the disease as a substance that had the potential to contaminate the very landscape of the nation.

In this paper we establish a dialogue with Living with Buildings to contextualise NOTBAD (Niches for Organic Territories in Bio-Augmented Design), a multidisciplinary research project at the intersection of architecture and microbiology, sited within a wider historical discourse connecting architecture and health. Living with Buildings (2018) was organised by the Wellcome Trust to trace the changing landscape of health and architecture, setting out to show how connections between the ways we feel and the places in which we spend our lives have historically evolved as our ideas about health and disease have changed. Taking our cue from the pieces at the exhibition, we discuss how the eighteenth century saw the emergence of an imaginary of cleanliness linked to miasma theory, locating bad smells and odours as the origin of disease and resulting in the adoption of rituals of purification in buildings. Treatments of plastering, coating and whitewashing popularised in the nineteenth century are testament to a shift from olfactory to visual codes of hygiene and to the ‘antibiotic turn’ in architecture.We extend the historical analysis to suggest that architecture finds itself at a crossroads. Although there is a growing understanding of how much architecture influences our wellbeing, architectural thought still clings to the antibiotic turn. Following the tradition of exchange between architecture and medicine, we propose the notion of Probiotic Architecture as a way of framing the shifting understanding of health in architectural design, suggesting that the microorganisms that colonise humans (the human microbiome) and our built environment (the built environment microbiome) have the potential to influence our health and the resilience of our buildings. Against the backdrop of the design research project Niches for Organic Territories in Bio-Augmented Design (NOTBAD), we suggest the need to reverse notions that all microbes are bad, to and propose instead materials and prototypes that encourage benign microbial growth.

Josip Franjo (ili Josephus Franciscus) Domin (1754. – 1819.) bio je hrvatski fizičar koji je predavao na sveučilištima u Győru i Pešti. Poznat je po knjizi Dissertatio physica de aeris factitii genesi, natura, et utilitatibus (Fizikalna rasprava o postanku, naravi i koristi umjetnog zraka), Győr, 1784. U Raspravi je opisao više vrsta “umjetnog zraka”, što ih je većinom otkrio Joseph Priestly, a usto postupke i uređaje za njihovo dobivanje te – u drugom dijelu knjige – njihovu upotrebu. U ovom radu raspravlja se o Dominovom opisu eudiometra, uređaja za mjerenje sadržaja kisika (“deflogistoniranog zraka”) u plinskim smjesama njegovom reakcijom s “nitroznim zrakom”, dušikovim(I) oksidom (NO), što ga je izumio Priestley a usavršio Felice Fontana. Naročito je istražena veza “dobrote zraka” s flogistonskom teorijom i teorijom mijazama u Dominovoj Raspravi. Ovo djelo je dano na korištenje pod licencom Creative Commons Imenovanje 4.0 međunarodna., Josip Franjo (or: Josephus Franciscus) Domin (1754–1819) was a Croatian physicist, affiliated at the Universities of Győr and Pest, Hungary. He is noted for his book Physical Treatise on the Genesis, Nature and Utility of Factitious Air, written in Latin (Dissertatio physica de aeris factitii genesi, natura, et utilitatibus) and published in Győr in 1784. In his Treatise he described various kinds of “artificial air”, discovered mostly by Joseph Priestly, as well as methods and devices for their preparation, and – in the second part of the book – their usage. This paper discusses his description of the eudiometer, an apparatus for measurement of oxygen (“dephlogisticated air”) content of gas mixtures by its reaction with “nitrous air” (nitrogen oxide, NO), invented by Priestley and improved by Felice Fontana. Especially discussed was the need for measuring the “goodness of air” in relation to the phlogiston and miasma theories, as presented in the Treatise. Ovo djelo je dano na korištenje pod licencom Creative Commons Imenovanje 4.0 međunarodna.

本稿は、戦前ドイツにおける「熱帯医学」の歴史をたどりながら、それが依拠した近代細菌学の方法論とその限界、さらには植民地主義との関係について考察するものである。一九世紀末の顕微鏡の改良は、細菌学の飛躍的発展をもたらした。当時ヨーロッパ各国は世界中で植民地統治を行なっており、住民の健康維持に大きな関心を寄せていた。細菌学は、自国民と現地住民双方にとって「文明の恩恵」になると期待された。ドイツでも世紀転換期にベルリンやハンブルクに「熱帯医学」の研究拠点が整う。しかし植民地で展開される「帝国医療」はその期待に充分応えられなかった。本論ではなぜ細菌学的手法が失敗し、さらに第一次世界大戦後のドイツで「熱帯医学」はどのような展開をみせたのかを分析した。その結果「熱帯医学」の知見や思考法が植民地喪失後のドイツでも重要な役割を果たしており、今後もその過去との取り組みがドイツ史研究に必要であるとの結論に達した。, In der vorliegenden Arbeit geht es vor allem darum, den historischen Sachverhalt der Entstehung sowie der Institutionalisierung der deutschen „Tropenmedizin" oder der im Rahmen des deutschen Kolonialismus bzw. Expansionismus entfalteten „Imperialmedizin" seit dem Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts darzustellen und darüber hinaus zu erörtern, wie sich die deutschen Mediziner vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nicht nur in ihrem Heimatland, sondern auch in den ehemaligen Kolonien mit der Bekämpfung der Infektionskrankheiten beschäftigten. Dank des technischen Fortschrittes der Mikroskopie entwickelte sich die moderne Bakteriologie um die vorletzte Jahrhundertwende sehr rasch zu einer selbständigen medizinischen Disziplin. Deren wissenschaftliche Methode, die Ursache der Krankheiten, unabhängig von den Umweltmechanismen, in denen sich die Kranken befanden, aber auch von deren körperlichen Eigenschaften, die man oft als „Rassenmerkmale" betrachtete, ausschließlich auf winzige Krankheitserreger (Mikroben, Bakterien oder Viren) zurückzuführen, ermöglichte den Medizinern Europas die Vereinfachung der Erkrankungsprozesse und auch eine deutliche gesundheitspolitische Zielsetzung vor allem in den überseeischen Kolonien, wo sich die Deutschen täglich einem „ungewohnten Klima" ausgesetzt und mit „fremden Rassen" konfrontiert sahen. Dies führte dazu, dass die Kolonialärzte Deutschlands, dem prominenten Wegbereiter der „Mikrobenjagd" Robert Koch (1843-1910) folgend, sowohl die bis zu jener Zeit vorherrschende „Miasmentheorie", wobei man davon ausgeht, dass die Verbreitung der Krankheit der „üblen Luft (Miasma)" zuzuschreiben sei, als auch den biologisch-medizinischen Rassismus, der die Anpassungsfähigkeit oder sogar die Überlebenschance der „weißen Rasse" in den Tropen in Frage stellte, abzulehnen versuchten. Die Bakteriologen waren der Ansicht, eine komplette Beseitigung aller „Tropenkrankheiten" sei nicht unmöglich, falls es ihnen gelinge, die Krankheitserreger sowie die richtigen Arzneimittel herauszufinden. Dies sei ein „Segen der (europäischen) Zivilisation", der den „Weißen" aber auch den „Farbigen" in den Kolonien erteilt werden solle. Es war gerade 1900, dass das „Institut für Schiffs- und Tropenkrankheiten" in Hamburg eröffnet wurde, und damit spielte die Hansestadt neben Berlin, wo Koch sein Institut besaß, für die Erforschung der Infektionskrankheiten eine wesentliche Rolle spielte. Anders als erwartet war jedoch die deutsche „Tropenmedizin" nicht in der Lage, gegen alle Infektionskrankheiten eine entscheidende Wirkung zu zeigen. Sie konnte z.B. bei der Bekämpfung der tropischen Malaria zwar schon in der deutschen Kolonialzeit (1884-1918/19) die Erkrankungs- sowie Ansteckungsprozesse, aber auch die Behandlungsmethode mit Chinin aufklären, doch die gesundheitspolitischen Maßnahmen gegen diese Krankheit schlug wegen des Finanzmangels fehl. Oder die Schlafkrankheit (afrikanische Trypanosomiasis) schädigte trotz wiederholter gesundheitspolitischer Eingriffe der Kolonialverwaltung ins Alltagsleben der Afrikaner immer weiter deren Gesundheit, denn der Versuch, Wirkungstoffe gegen die Krankheit herzustellen, war stets ohne Erfolg. Letztlich blieb den Medizinern hinsichtlich der einheimischen Leprakranken keine andere Wahl übrig, als sie von ihrer Familie zu isolieren, was selbstverständlich ihre Empörung hervorrief und deswegen bald eingestellt wurde. Wegen des Verlustes im Ersten Weltkrieg und des darauffolgenden Abschlusses des Versailler Friedensvertrags kam die deutsche Kolonialherrschaft zu einem plötzlichen Ende. Dies bedeutete jedoch nicht etwa einen Stillstand der tropenmedizinischen Forschungen des Landes; das Pharmaunternehmen Bayer hatte schon während des Krieges ein neues, arsenfreies Arzneimittel gegen Schlafkrankheit („Bayer 205") hergestellt, und wegen der positiven Behandlungsergebnisse ein großes Interesse im Kreis der internationalen Ärzteschaft erweckte. Um die Heilungskraft des „Bayer 205" klinisch zu bestätigen, erteilte sogar Großbritannien den deutschen „Tropenmedizinern" schon in den 1920er Jahren die Aufenthaltserlaubnis in den afrikanischen Gebieten, die einst zum Deutschen Kaiserreich gehört hatten, aber deren Betreten den alten „Kolonialherrn" nach dem Krieg strikt untersagt war. Unter denjenigen Ärzten, die in der Zwischenkriegszeit Afrika bereisen durften, ist der ehemalige Stabsarzt Friedrich Karl Kleine (1869-1951) zu nennen: Als Nachfolger Robert Kochs übernahm Kleine die Bekämpfung der Schlafkrankheit in Deutsch-Ostafrika. Dank seiner Karriere als Kolonialarzt hatte er enge Konnexionen mit den britischen Medizinern, was ihm ermöglichte, sich mit der Erforschung der Trypanosomenkrankheit weiter bis zum Vorabend des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Afrika zu beschäftigen und nach dessen Beendigung nach Kapstadt umzusiedeln. Während Kleine den mikrobiologischen Prinzipien Robert Kochs eher treu blieb, nahm der ehemalige Kolonialarzt Ernst Rodenwaldt (1878-1965) angesichts der obengenannten Grenze der modernen Bakteriologie frühzeitig davon Abstand, die Ursache der Krankheit nur in deren Erregern zu suchen. Stattdessen bemühte er sich darum, das Auftreten der Krankheitserscheinungen auf die körperliche Beschaffenheit der Erkrankten zu beziehen. Er behauptete, dass die Empfindlichkeit gegen die eine oder andere Infektionskrankheit in einem engen Zusammenhang mit den „rassischen Eigenschaften" einzelner Körper stehe. Auf diese Weise brachte Rodenwaldt die von Koch weggelassene Problematik der „Menschenrasse" nochmals in den Bereich der modernen Bakteriologie, was ihm 1935 den Weg zur Professur für Rassenhygiene an der Universität Heidelberg bahnte. Sein Konzept „Geomedizin", die, durch die „Geopolitik" Karl Haushofers inspiriert, die Verbreitung oder das Ausbleiben der Infektionskrankheiten als Kampf unter Menschen verschiedener „Rassen" zu betrachten versuchte, wurde vom Nationalsozialismus zum Zweck der Rechtfertigung seiner Expansionspolitik ausgenutzt. Aus der oben ausgeführten Geschichte der deutschen Tropenmedizin geht hervor, dass die Kolonialerbe Deutschlands auch in der nachkolonialen Zeit eine nicht kleine Bedeutung besaß, obwohl sich die deutschen Historiker mit ihr nicht genug auseinandersetzen wollen. In diesem Sinne ist die koloniale Vergangenheit auch heute noch zu bewältigen.

During the 1854 cholera outbreak in Florence, Italy, Filippo Pacini documented that the cause of the infection was a bacterium. This conclusion was also independently reached by John Snow during the 1854 cholera outbreak in London. By using an epidemiological method, Snow found that the infection spread through a polluted water network. Snow identified a water pump as the source of the disease. After removing the infected handle of this pump, the cases of cholera rapidly began to decrease. A microscopic examination of the water showed organic impurities but no bacteria. This discovery was ignored during Snow’s lifetime. In contrast, through microscopy during the autopsies of cholera victims, Pacini observed that the disruption of their intestinal mucosa was closely associated with millions of the bacteria that he called Vibrio cholerae . Via histological techniques, Pacini detected that intestinal mucosa reabsorption dysfunction was the cause of debilitating diarrhoea, vomiting, severe dehydration and death. Nevertheless, his discovery of Vibrio cholerae was ignored during Pacini’s lifetime. A survey of Pacini’s autographic manuscripts suggests that Pacini and Snow may have shared mutual knowledge within their respective seminal papers. This survey also facilitates, for the first time, the creation of maps that illustrate the worldwide distribution of Pacini’s cholera papers from 1854 to 1881. The consistent neglect of Pacini’s discovery remains a true enigma.

For over a decade the reigning public view of the United States’ legal establishment has been a negative one. In many quarters the civil justice system is viewed as a miasma of opportunistic self-seeking and a menace to America’s economic well-being. Much of the animosity is focussed on lawyers as the authors, proprietors and chief beneficiaries of that system.

When the history of the COVID-19 pandemic is written, it is likely to show that the mental models held by scientists sometimes facilitated their thinking, thereby leading to lives saved, and at other times constrained their thinking, thereby leading to lives lost. This paper explores some competing mental models of how infectious diseases spread and shows how these models influenced the scientific process and the kinds of facts that were generated, legitimized and used to support policy. A central theme in the paper is the relative weight given by dominant scientific voices to probabilistic arguments based on experimental measurements versus mechanistic arguments based on theory. Two examples are explored: the cholera epidemic in nineteenth century London—in which the story of John Snow and the Broad Street pump is retold—and the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and early 2021—in which the evidence-based medicine movement and its hierarchy of evidence features prominently. In each case, it is shown that prevailing mental models—which were assumed by some to transcend theory but were actually heavily theory-laden—powerfully shaped both science and policy, with fatal consequences for some.

Near-total adherence to false scientific theories is the striking parallel between 19th century miasma theory associated with cholera, dispelled by Dr. John Snow, and 21st century “miasmas”, namely, the anthropogenic-carbon-dioxide-cause of global warming theory, and its presumed “cure” by geoengineering, undisclosed jet-spraying particulate pollution into the troposphere. An image published in the New York Times in 2017 began a series of discoveries that pointed to particulate pollution, not carbon dioxide, as the principal cause of global warming. Both industrial and deliberate jet-sprayed particulate pollution heat the atmosphere and thus reduces atmospheric convection-efficiency, which retards heat loss from earth’s surface and causes global warming, concomitantly wreaking havoc on human and environmental health. Today’s “bad air,” rather than spreading contagion, is causing a pandemic of non-communicable diseases (NCD’s) and decimating our natural environment. Covert tropospheric aerosol geoengineering, especially utilizing coal fly ash, is a primary catalyst for both of these modern disasters, and it must be recognized and halted. Air pollution is the leading environmental cause of disease and death in the world. Combustion products of fossil fuels are major contributors to both global warming and air pollution. The causes of air pollution and associated runaway global warming are modifiable in a short time-frame by reducing industrial and geo-engineering particulate pollution. However, corrective actions hinge on a scientific paradigm-shift and international cooperation at all levels of authority. The modern “miasmas” of complacency encompassing the universal dangers of air pollution and the deadly code of silence on the subject of undisclosed geo-engineering must be dispelled if we are to have a “fighting chance” to confront these global public health emergencies. Despite Snow’s ground-breaking work, the stubborn belief in “miasma” as the cause of infectious disease persisted well beyond his death into the 20th Century; our time is much too short now to delay changing course.

The 40th ‘anniversary’ of punk in 2016 was marked by various events in London including museum exhibits. Missing from far too many of these events has been the voice and experiences of marginalized punks. Was the subversive nature of punk being undermined by the realities of a display space that must cater to a wide range of users and stakeholders? Or is the inclusive platform that punk sells itself on a well –disguised miasma that arises from its perpetuation of (and belief in) troubling norms such as sexism, ableism, racism and homophobia? This article will argue that it was a combination of both. Utilising interviews it will demonstrate the impact that the exhibit had on marginalized groups within punk and their reflections on whether it reflects wider norms within punk. Relying on the stranger fetishization theory of Sara Ahmed, this article will examine how punk’s memorialization of itself forces marginalized groups within it to be used as a means of bolstering a particular narrative of inclusivity that in reality ensures they remain strangers within their own subculture.

There is a distinctive Venetian carnival mask with sinister overtones and historical significance to physicians because it belongs to the 'Doctor of the Plague'. The costume features a beaked white mask, black hat and waxed gown. This was worn by mediaeval Plague Doctors as protection according to the Miasma Theory of disease propagation. The plague (or Black Death), ravaged Europe over several centuries with each pandemic leaving millions of people dead. The cause of the contagion was not known, nor was there a cure, which added to the widespread desperation and fear. Venice was a major seaport, and each visitation of the plague (beginning in 1348) devastated the local population. In response, Venetians were among the first to establish the principles of quarantine and 'Lazarets' which we still use today. Plague outbreaks have occurred in Australia, notably in Sydney (1900-1925), and continue to flare up in poorer communities, most recently in Madagascar (2017). Antibiotics are the mainstay of treatment, but there are concerns regarding the emergence of resistant pathogenic strains of Yersinia pestis, and their potential use in bio-terrorism.

A 19th century physician was crucial to the establishment of 2 medical specialties-anesthesiology and public health. Everyone whose interest in public health has increased in the last year will be amazed at Dr John Snow's career in anesthesiology. Those who recognize him as the first full-time physician anesthetist will be struck by his development of medical mapping during the Cholera Pandemic of 1848, resulting in one of the fundamental techniques of epidemiology and public health that has continued through today. Snow's accomplishments in anesthesiology and epidemiology reflected a concatenation of science, focus, and creativity. His training in the early 19th century integrated science, medicine, and his keen interest in respiratory physiology. His early clinical exposure to colliery workers in Newcastle was likely influenced by the earlier development of pneumatic medicine. He was committed to the notion that chemistry, especially the use of medicinal gases, would be transformative for medicine. Thus, he was "primed" when the news of the American anodyne ether reached London in 1846. When the third cholera pandemic reached London shortly thereafter, in the fall of 1848, his academic and practical understanding of gas chemistry and pharmacology, respiratory physiology, and anesthetic agents led him to question the popularly promulgated miasma-based theories of transmission. His methodical investigations, research, and perseverance were mirrored in his scholarly work, numerous presentations, and public advocacy. He articulated many scientific principles essential to the early practice of anesthesia-anesthetic potency, quantitative dosing of anesthetic agents, engineering principles required for conserving the latent heat of vaporization, and minimizing the contribution of anesthetic equipment to airway resistance. He moved easily and methodically between these worlds of physiology, chemistry, engineering, clinical medicine, and public health. In his role as the first medical epidemiologist, Snow understood the power of medical mapping and the graphic presentation of data. He was a pioneer in 2 nascent fields of medicine that were historically and remain contemporarily connected.

The initial outbreak of plague, later called the Black Death, in England in the winter of 1348-1349 parallels the actions and reactions to the current health crisis of COVID-19. King Edward III closed the courts, regulated travel in and out of the country, ordered larger cities-especially London-to clean their streets to avoid further contamination from “bad air” or contagious miasma. Many inheritance records of deceased landholders speak to the thousands of dead peasants and farms and businesses left untended. This paper addresses the actions of the crown during and just after this first outbreak of the plague in light of the contemporary pandemic, COVID-19. © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Stan Booth and Chris Mounsey.

The recent suggestion that the late medieval Eurasian plague pandemic, the Black Death, had its origins in the thirteenth century rather than the fourteenth century has brought new scrutiny to texts reporting ‘epidemics’ in the earlier period. Evidence both from Song China and Iran suggests that plague was involved in major sieges laid by the Mongols between the 1210s and the 1250s, including the siege of Baghdad in 1258 which resulted in the fall of the Abbasid caliphate. In fact, re-examination of multiple historical accounts in the two centuries after the siege of Baghdad shows that the role of epidemic disease in the Mongol attacks was commonly known among chroniclers in Syria and Egypt, raising the question why these outbreaks have been overlooked in modern historiography of plague. The present study looks in detail at the evidence in Arabic sources for disease outbreaks after the siege of Baghdad in Iraq and its surrounding regions. We find subtle factors in the documentary record to explain why, even though plague received new scrutiny from physicians in the period, it remained a minor feature in stories about the Mongol invasion of western Asia. In contemporary understandings of the genesis of epidemics, the Mongols were not seen to have brought plague to Baghdad; they caused plague to arise by their rampant destruction. When an even bigger wave of plague struck the Islamic world in the fourteenth century, no association was made with the thirteenth-century episode. Rather, plague was now associated with the Mongol world as a whole.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit geht es vor allem darum, den historischen Sachverhalt der Entstehung sowie der Institutionalisierung der deutschen „Tropenmedizin" oder der im Rahmen des deutschen Kolonialismus bzw. Expansionismus entfalteten „Imperialmedizin" seit dem Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts darzustellen und darüber hinaus zu erörtern, wie sich die deutschen Mediziner vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nicht nur in ihrem Heimatland, sondern auch in den ehemaligen Kolonien mit der Bekämpfung der Infektionskrankheiten beschäftigten. Dank des technischen Fortschrittes der Mikroskopie entwickelte sich die moderne Bakteriologie um die vorletzte Jahrhundertwende sehr rasch zu einer selbständigen medizinischen Disziplin. Deren wissenschaftliche Methode, die Ursache der Krankheiten, unabhängig von den Umweltmechanismen, in denen sich die Kranken befanden, aber auch von deren körperlichen Eigenschaften, die man oft als „Rassenmerkmale" betrachtete, ausschließlich auf winzige Krankheitserreger (Mikroben, Bakterien oder Viren) zurückzuführen, ermöglichte den Medizinern Europas die Vereinfachung der Erkrankungsprozesse und auch eine deutliche gesundheitspolitische Zielsetzung vor allem in den überseeischen Kolonien, wo sich die Deutschen täglich einem „ungewohnten Klima" ausgesetzt und mit „fremden Rassen" konfrontiert sahen. Dies führte dazu, dass die Kolonialärzte Deutschlands, dem prominenten Wegbereiter der „Mikrobenjagd" Robert Koch (1843-1910) folgend, sowohl die bis zu jener Zeit vorherrschende „Miasmentheorie", wobei man davon ausgeht, dass die Verbreitung der Krankheit der „üblen Luft (Miasma)" zuzuschreiben sei, als auch den biologisch-medizinischen Rassismus, der die Anpassungsfähigkeit oder sogar die Überlebenschance der „weißen Rasse" in den Tropen in Frage stellte, abzulehnen versuchten. Die Bakteriologen waren der Ansicht, eine komplette Beseitigung aller „Tropenkrankheiten" sei nicht unmöglich, falls es ihnen gelinge, die Krankheitserreger sowie die richtigen Arzneimittel h

This question of ecological certainty, patriotism, or the egotistical aggrandizement connoted by the manufacture of images involves conundrums of psychology, of speculative realism, panoramic endemism, picturesque escapism, those postcards and billboards, the rational and irrational, potential and actual, underlying principles of identity, integrity, and place. Ultimately, the landscapes of mind, those myriad, wistful losses of physical identity into the greater miasma of an aesthetic swamp that is the photograph, leave us ecologically stymied. There could be no stranger paradox than that of a landscape photograph. Judgments are not part of the aesthetic questions.

The question of whether SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted by droplets or aerosols has been very controversial. We sought to explain this controversy through a historical analysis of transmission research in other diseases. For most of human history, many diseases were thought to transmit through the air, often over long distances and in a phantasmagorical way, and often in error (e.g. malaria, cholera). Building on the germ theory of disease developed in the mid 19th century and on the demise of miasma theory, prominent public health official Charles Chapin in 1910 urged the public health community to focus on contact and droplet infection. However, he introduced a major error in the process: that ease of infection in close proximity is associated exclusively with large “sprayborne” droplets that fall to the ground quickly, and he deemed airborne transmission as very unlikely. This new paradigm became dominant, leading to systematic errors in the interpretation of research evidence on transmission. For the next five decades, no disease was accepted by the general medical and infection control communities as airborne, until tuberculosis (which had been misclassified as droplet) in 1962. Chapin’s paradigm remained dominant and only a few diseases were widely accepted as transmitted by aerosols before COVID-19: those that were clearly transmitted over long distances or time scales. Resistance to the idea of airborne spread of a respiratory infection is not new. In fact, it has occurred repeatedly over much of the last century and greatly hampered understanding of how diseases transmit.

The present essay aims to shed light on the relationship between disgust and morality by investigating the notion of miasma in Ancient Greece. Miasma mostly refers to pollution in both a moral and a religious sense: it is generated by impious thoughts and immoral acts and, if not contained, can spread like a disease, thus contaminating the whole community. In my analysis, I aim to propose a new understanding of this concept by analysing its structural relationship to a negative emotion: disgust. In fact, the latest neuroscientific and psychological findings point to a substantial relationship between disgust and morality. However, this interconnection is fraught with ambivalence. Disgust is typically considered to be a negative moral and social emotion due to its dehumanizing tendencies and its impenetrability to mitigating factors. Nevertheless, this aversive emotion seems to play a positive role in the non-violent condemnation of antisocial behaviour through the stigmatization of wrongdoers. In light of this research, I argue that miasma is a manifestation of the subtle interplay between disgust and morality.

In Vivienne Franzmann’s Pests (Clean Break, 2014), two rat-women scamper around a putrefied “nest” of rotting mattresses. Written following residencies in women’s prisons, Franzmann intended Pests to raise awareness on what imprisoned women frequently report as part of their lived experience: poverty; domestic violence and sexual assault; and childhoods spent in care. “It is brutal, but it is authentic,” she says (Gentleman, 2014). The aftermath of prison becomes, in the carceral imaginary of Pests, intertwined with waste, disease and animality. In this, I suggest, it performs a miasma of dispossession and social exclusion. In this article I explore Pests as an example of what I call miasmatic performance. I investigate the aesthetics and politics of carceral atmospherics produced by this theatre, thinking through how they both elicit, and simultaneously confound, a collective desire to attribute a clear function to prison in society.

In comparison with other European nations, 19th-century burial reform in England is often related as a history of difference and failure. England lacked centralising legislation to enforce the establishment of new, sanitary cemeteries. Rather, permissive regulation encouraged the creation of new cemeteries, largely reliant on local initiative. This paper presents a re-evaluation of that history by focussing on archival documents from the General Board of Health and local burial board minutes. The paper discusses the way in which key individuals and agencies developed a refined understanding of the sanitary dangers presented by decomposing bodies. This understanding rested on deep familiarity with Continental European research and practices. Despite the lack of centralising legislation, the General Board of Health and the Burial Office administered an effective system of sanitary burial governance which combined inspection, advice and bureaucratic processes that worked with local communities to develop a national network of cemeteries that were managed according to scientific practices. En comparaison avec d’autres nations européennes, la réforme funéraire du xixe siècle en Angleterre est souvent décrite comme une histoire de différences et d’échecs. L’Angleterre n’avait pas de législation centralisatrice pour imposer la création de nouveaux cimetières sanitaires. Au contraire, une réglementation permissive a encouragé la création de nouveaux cimetières, en s’appuyant largement sur l’initiative locale. Cet article présente une réévaluation de cette histoire en se concentrant sur les documents d’archives du General Board of Health et sur les procès-verbaux des conseils funéraires locaux. Le texte examine la manière dont les personnes et les organismes ont développé une compréhension plus fine des dangers sanitaires présentés par les corps en décomposition. Cette compréhension repose sur une connaissance approfondie de la recherche et des pratiques en Europe continentale. Malgré l’absence de législation centralisatrice, le General Board of Health et l’Office des sépultures ont administré un système efficace de gouvernance sanitaire des sépultures qui combinait l’inspection, les conseils et les processus bureaucratiques. Ils ont travaillé avec les communautés locales pour développer un réseau national de cimetières gérés selon des pratiques scientifiques. En comparación con otras naciones europeas, la reforma funeraria del siglo XIX en Inglaterra se relaciona a menudo como una historia de diferencias y fracasos. Inglaterra carecía de una legislación centralizada para hacer cumplir el establecimiento de nuevos cementerios sanitariamente adecuados. Antes bien, una reglamentación permisiva alentaba la creación de nuevos cementerios, sustentadas en gran medida en iniciativas locales. Este artículo presenta una reevaluación de esa historia, centrándose en los documentos de archivo de la General Board of Health y en las actas de las juntas funerarias locales. El artículo examina la forma en que personas y organismos clave desarrollaron una comprensión más precisa de los peligros sanitarios que presentaban los cuerpos en descomposición. Esta comprensión se basó en un profundo conocimiento de las investigaciones y prácticas de Europa continental. A pesar de la falta de una legislación centralizadora, la General Board of Health y la Burial Office administraron un sistema eficaz de gobernanza sanitaria de las inhumaciones, que combinaba la inspección, el asesoramiento y los procesos burocráticos, trabajando con las comunidades locales para desarrollar una red nacional de cementerios que se gestionaban de acuerdo con prácticas científicas.

Resumen Este artículo analiza el pensamiento médico del doctor Guillermo Blest, expuesto tanto en los informes médicos que envió a las autoridades de gobierno como en un escrito que publicó en 1828 titulado “Ensayo sobre las causas más comunes y activas de las enfermedades que se padecen en Santiago de Chile con indicaciones de los mejores medios para evitar su destructora influencia”. En ellos, Blest presenta los principios de irritabilidad (Broussais) y excitabilidad (Brown) como elementos centrales para explicar las causas de las enfermedades. Asimismo, se observa la pervivencia de la teoría miasmática que coexiste con dichos principios explicativos, lo que le permite a Blest configurar un cuadro explicativo de la enfermedad.

Expiation refers to a ritual attempt to deal with sin, and while in the Hebrew Bible it can include such things as prayer and acts of mourning, we most frequently find it manifested in sacrifice. Biblical texts rarely explain how sacrifice functions in relation to sin, but sacrifice is described at greatest length in the Priestly writing, particularly in Leviticus 1–7, which has been described as a manual of sacrifice. Even here, however, P does not provide a theory of sacrificial expiation—does not, that is, explain how or why sacrifice functions as the proper ritual response to sin. Jacob Milgrom’s re-creation of the worldview that stands behind P’s understanding of sacrifice claims that the Priestly tradents understood sin as creating a miasma of impurity that polluted the sancta, and saw the blood of the sin or purification offering as a ritual detergent that cleansed the sanctuary. If we read the Priestly narrative without trying to reconstruct this worldview, but look rather for the ways in which P portrays sacrifice and expiation, we see that sacrifice functions as a way for Israelites to publically acknowledge their sin and to signal that they have no intentions of violating God’s commandments again. Part of this ritual message involves honoring God as sovereign, thus also acknowledging God’s right to command and indicating the sacrificers’ awareness that they must act as loyal subjects to their divine sovereign.

This thesis was prompted by the lack of published material, and general miasma that currently dominates the architectural profession in regard to contemporary feminism. This thesis explores the interface between contemporary feminist theory and the built environment, in particular the feminist strategy of ’re-writing’ as presented by Meaghan Morris. In order to understand contemporary feminist strategies, both feminism and the history of the relationship between feminism and the built environment are examined. The work of Meaghan Morris and other local feminist writers is then presented. Finally, I investigate the feminist strategy of re-writing, with a personal exploration of three Brisbane women’s rooms.

Teknophagy (τεκνοϕαγία), or child-eating, is an apt subject for tragedy. It introduces the theme of miasma, it escalates violence and epitomises the destructive family feuds that Aristotle prized as the most suitable stories for tragedy. Therefore, unsurprisingly, the teknophagies of Thyestes and Tereus were dramatised in three fifth-century tragedies, all of them preserved only in fragments: Euripides’Thyestes, Sophokles’Thyestes(Β) and Sophokles’Tereus. What is surprising is the appearance of plays by the same titles in the comic tradition, includingTereusplays by Kantharos (C5 BC), Anaxandrides (C4 BC) and Philetairos (C4 BC) along with Diokles’Thyestes(Β) (late C5 BC to early C4 BC). Therefore, this study will first consider how Tereus’ teknophagy was adapted to mythical burlesques, to then consider how comic adaptations of Thyestes’ teknophagy influenced Seneca'sThyestes.

When contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) was first detected on a farm north of Melbourne, at Bundoora, in 1858, the predominant theory of miasma was being challenged by contagionist theories of disease transmission. This well-documented case was recorded during a period of change in the scientific assessment of disease and therefore affords an exploration of what aspects of the landscape were considered important for livestock health at the time. Although the introduction, vaccination programs and eventual eradication of CBPP on mainland Australia has been well explored, scholars have neglected this aspect of the disease's history. By comparing 19th century records of farmland with how the site appears today, it is also possible to highlight the limited information provided by contemporary texts, while at the same time developing an appreciation of the ways in which the perception of the rural landscape has changed. This differing perception has implications for the utilisation of these sources for veterinary and environmental historians seeking to understand the mid-19th century agricultural landscape and how it relates to animal health.