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Miasma theory of disease

 

 
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Miasma theory of disease
 
 
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The miasmatic theory of disease held that disease
Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
s such as cholera
Cholera

Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic or epidemic cholera, is an infectious gastroenteritis caused by enterotoxin-producing strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae....
 or the Black Death
Black Death

The Black Death, was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis , but recently attributed by some factors to other diseases....
 were caused by a miasma (Greek language: "pollution"), a noxious form of "bad air". In general, this concept has been supplanted by the more scientifically founded germ theory of disease
Germ theory of disease

The germ theory, also called the pathogenic theory of medicine, is a theory that proposes that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases....
. Miasma is considered to be a poisonous vapor or mist that is filled with particles from decomposed matter (miasmata) that could cause illnesses and is identifiable by its nasty, foul smell (which, of course, came from the decomposed material).






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The miasmatic theory of disease held that disease
Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
s such as cholera
Cholera

Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic or epidemic cholera, is an infectious gastroenteritis caused by enterotoxin-producing strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae....
 or the Black Death
Black Death

The Black Death, was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis , but recently attributed by some factors to other diseases....
 were caused by a miasma (Greek language: "pollution"), a noxious form of "bad air". In general, this concept has been supplanted by the more scientifically founded germ theory of disease
Germ theory of disease

The germ theory, also called the pathogenic theory of medicine, is a theory that proposes that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases....
. Miasma is considered to be a poisonous vapor or mist that is filled with particles from decomposed matter (miasmata) that could cause illnesses and is identifiable by its nasty, foul smell (which, of course, came from the decomposed material). A prominent supporter of the miasmatic theory was Abaris the Hyperborean
Abaris the Hyperborean

Abaris the Hyperborean , son of Seuthes, was a legendary sage, Iatromantis, and priest of Apollo known to the Ancient Greece. He was supposed to have learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea, near the Caucasus, which he fled during a plague....
, who famously cleaned Sparta
Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
 under Mount Taygetus
Taygetus

Mount Taygetus, Taugetus, or Taigetus is a mountain range of the Peloponnesus, Southern Greece, extending about 65 mi north from the southern end of Cape Matapan in the Mani Peninsula....
 from miasmata coming downhill.

The miasmatic theory of disease became popular in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 and continued to the mid 1800s, when it was used to explain the spread of cholera
Cholera

Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic or epidemic cholera, is an infectious gastroenteritis caused by enterotoxin-producing strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae....
 in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 and in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, partly explaining Haussmann's latter renovation of the French capital
Haussmann's renovation of Paris

The Haussmann Renovations, or Haussmannisation of Paris, was a work commissioned by Napol?on III and led by the Seine pr?fet, Georges Eug?ne Haussmann between 1852 and 1870, though work continued well after the Second French Empire's demise in 1870....
. The disease was said to be preventable by cleansing and scouring of the body and items. Dr. William Farr
William Farr

William Farr was a nineteenth century United Kingdom epidemiologist, regarded as one of the founders of medical statistics....
, the assistant commissioner for the 1851 London census, was an important supporter of the miasma theory. He believed that cholera was transmitted by air, and that there was a deadly concentration of miasmata near the River Thames
River Thames

The Thames is a major river flowing through southern England. While best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows through several other towns and cities, including Oxford, Reading, Berkshire and Windsor, Berkshire....
' banks. The wide acceptance of Miasma theory during the cholera outbreaks overshadowed the partially correct theory brought forth by John Snow
John Snow (physician)

John Snow was a British physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered to be one of the fathers of epidemiology, because of his work in tracing the source of a 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak....
 that cholera was spread through water. This slowed the response to the major outbreaks in the Soho district of London and other areas. Another proponent of the miasmatic theory was Crimean War
Crimean War

The Crimean War, also known in Russia as the Oriental War was fought between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the other....
 nurse, Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale, Order of Merit , Royal Red Cross , who came to be known as "The Lady with the Lamp", was a pioneering nurse, writer and noted statistician....
 (1820-1910), who became famous for her work in making hospitals sanitary and fresh-smelling.

Sanitary reforms


The theory of miasma made sense to the English Sanitary reformers of the mid-nineteenth century. Miasma explained why cholera
Cholera

Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic or epidemic cholera, is an infectious gastroenteritis caused by enterotoxin-producing strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae....
 and other diseases were epidemic in places where the water was undrained and very foul-smelling. The theory led to improvements in the sanitation systems, which led to decreased episodes of cholera
Cholera

Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic or epidemic cholera, is an infectious gastroenteritis caused by enterotoxin-producing strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae....
, which helped to support the theory.

Even though the miasmatic theory has been disproven by the knowledge of virus
Virus

A virus is a Optical microscope#Limitations of light microscopes infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell . Viruses infect all cellular life....
es and bacteria
Bacteria

The Bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals....
, it made the connection between dirtiness and diseases. This caused public health reforms and encouraged cleanliness, even though some doctors still did not wash their hands between patients. They believed that the miasmata were only airborne, and would not be stuck on the doctors' hands.

The miasmatic theory was consistent with the observations that:
  • disease was associated with poor sanitation
    Sanitation

    Sanitation is the hygienic means of preventing human contact from the hazards of wastes to promote health. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease....
     (and hence foul odours) and that sanitary improvements reduced disease, but not with the observations of microbiology
    Microbiology

    Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryote such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes, which are bacteria and archaea....
     that led to the germ theory of disease
    Germ theory of disease

    The germ theory, also called the pathogenic theory of medicine, is a theory that proposes that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases....
    .


Cholera


So far as cholera is concerned, the miasmatic theory was disproved by John Snow
John Snow (physician)

John Snow was a British physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered to be one of the fathers of epidemiology, because of his work in tracing the source of a 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak....
 following an epidemic in Soho
Soho

Soho is an area in the centre of the West End of London of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is an entertainment district which for much of the later part of the 20th century had a reputation for its sex shops as well as its night life and film industry....
, central London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 in 1854. Because of the miasmatic theory's predominance among Italian scientists, the 1854 discovery by Filippo Pacini
Filippo Pacini

Filippo Pacini was an Italy anatomist, posthumously famous for isolating the cholera bacillus Vibrio cholerae in 1854, well before Robert Koch's more widely accepted discoveries thirty years later....
 of the bacillum that caused the disease was completely ignored, and the bacteria had to be rediscovered thirty years later by Robert Koch
Robert Koch

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....
.

A remnant of this theory is the name of malaria
Malaria

Malaria is a Vector -borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. It is widespread in Tropics and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa....
, from Italian mala aria ("bad air").

See also

  • Night air
  • Polizeiwissenschaft
    Polizeiwissenschaft

    Polizeiwissenschaft was a discipline born in the first third of the 18th century which lasted until the middle of the 19th century.Considered as the science of the internal order of the community, it was a comprehensive term, which included today's public law, Administration science, the early political economy, public health concerns, ur...
     ("Science of police")


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