Title Miasmas and disease : public health and the environment in the pre-industrial age / Carlo M. Cipolla ; translated by Elizabeth Potter

Published New Haven : Yale University Press, 1992

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Description 1 online resource (ix, 101 pages) Contents The Health Boards in Italy and Epidemiological Concepts -- 'Miasmas, Filth and Rubbish' -- Medical Reports and the Florentine Health Magistrates -- Doctors, Diseases and the People -- Conclusion Summary This book explores the themes of health, medicine, and the origins of infectious disease in pre-industrial Italy. Using the papers of the Magistrato alla Sanita, the Florence Health Magistracy, covering the first 30 years of the 17th century, the author recreates the ecological and medical environment of the Florentine countryside. The book opens with an analysis of the Sanitation Office in Florence, the Uffici de Sanita, of its regional inspectors and their grasp of epidemiological principles. It reveals the transformation of the Office from a temporary administrative body into a permanent institution with preventative aims. And it documents, through their own verbatim accounts, the endeavours of intelligent and motivated doctors and medical inspectors to combat disease within a superstitious culture and an environment of dirt. The book shows how tantalizingly close was contemporary medical practice, focused on the physical elements, humours, and pungent exhalations, to the real sources of infection - dirt, rubbish, and sanitary effluents. Cipolla shows how, despite limitations in knowledge, the painful process of 17th century discovery provided the basis for modern medical insight Notes Translation of: Miasmi ed umori Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-90) and index Notes Print version record Subject Public health -- Italy -- Florence -- History -- 17th century Medicine -- History -- 17th century. Environmental health -- Italy -- Florence Sanitation -- Italy -- Florence Public health -- Italy -- Florence Environmental Health -- history History, 17th Century Public Health -- history Sanitation -- history MEDICAL / History Sanitation Medicine Environmental health Public health Volksgezondheid. Epidemieën. Médecine -- Italie -- Florence (Grand-Duché) -- Histoire -- 17e siècle. Santé publique -- Italie -- Florence (Grand-Duché) -- Histoire -- 17e siècle. SUBJECT Italy Subject Italy -- Florence Genre/Form History Form Electronic book Author Potter, Elizabeth, translator LC no. 91030385 ISBN 9780300156928 0300156928

Other Titles Miasmi ed umori. English

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