Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Santer, Melvin, author.

Title Confronting contagion : our evolving understanding of disease / Melvin Santer
Published Oxford, England ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2015
©2015

Copies

Description 1 online resource (376 pages)
Contents Homer-Hesiod-Torah-Greek Playwrights -- Philosophers -- Hippocratic Writings -- Galen -- After Galen -- The Causes of Plague (The Black Death) in Europe 1348-1350 CE -- The Late Renaissance Period -- Mechanical Philosophy, the Revival of Atomism, and Contagious Disease Theory in the Seventeenth Century -- The Discovery of Microscopic Life -- The Cause of Plague in France in 1720 CE -- Plant Diseases Are Caused by Living Microscopic Cells (Fungi) That Are Not Spontaneously Generated -- The Nineteenth Century -- Filterable Agents, Designated as Viruses, Cause Contagious Diseases of Plants, Animals, Humans, and Bacteria
Summary "Throughout history, mankind's working theories regarding the cause of infectious disease have shifted drastically, as cultures developed their philosophic, religious, and scientific beliefs. Plagues that were originally attributed to the wrath of the gods were later described as having nothing to do with them, though the cause continued to be a mystery. As centuries passed, medical and religious theorists proposed reasons such as poor air quality or the configuration of the planets as causes for the spread of disease. In every instance, in order to understand the origin of a disease theory during a specific period of history, one must understand that culture's metaphysical beliefs."--Page 2 of cover
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Communicable diseases
Communicable Diseases -- history
Communicable Diseases
Communicable Diseases -- etiology
Disease Outbreaks -- history
Germ Theory of Disease -- history
HEALTH & FITNESS -- Diseases -- General.
MEDICAL -- Clinical Medicine.
MEDICAL -- Diseases.
MEDICAL -- Evidence-Based Medicine.
MEDICAL -- Internal Medicine.
Communicable diseases
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780199356362
019935636X
0199356351
9780199356355
9781322027654
132202765X
0199356378
9780199356379