Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T11:10:43.548Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The epidemiological landscapes of the past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2009

Mary J. Dobson
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

The altitude, the drainage, the site of our homes, the nature of the soil, the air we breathe, all influence the length of life.

(Moheau, 1778, livre 1, pp.152–3, livre 11, pp.5–21)

THE BOUNDS OF MALARIA – FROM ‘BAD AIR’ TO MARSHLAND MALARIA

The most outstanding epidemiological divide within south-east England was not between rural and urban communities but along the bounds of marshland and non-marshland terrain. It was here that the natural environmental or ecological features proved to be the critical determinants of the patterning of disease and death. In the area of marshland topography and ‘bad airs’, the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writers had written with remarkable clarity and perception. They had sensed with their noses, they had realised through their experiences and their ill health that some unique and peculiar quality of the marsh air gave rise to frequent suffering and premature death. The belief that it was the ‘mal'aria’ of the marshes which caused the high levels of mortality and sickness was not, of course, strictly correct. It was not the ‘bad air’, per se, that contributed to marshland mortality. Rather it was an anopheline mosquito vector, capable of transmitting a parasitic disease to humans, that was the culprit in this mortal landscape. Seventeenth-and eighteenth-century men, women and children were observing, witnessing and falling victim to the true plasmodium malaria. But they were unaware of the real ecological and biological parameters of this disease.

In reconstructing the demographic and epidemiological landscapes of early modern south-east England, considerable attention has been given to the role of malaria in this setting (Chapter 6).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×