Political Ideology and Public Health in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

A study of early-nineteenth-century disease prevention practices in the Western world reveals four competing theories about the causes of epidemic diseases: a contagion theory, a personal behavior theory, a supernatural theory, and an environmental theory. With the exception of the supernatural approach, these explanations for illness closely resemble the theories advanced today to account for chronic diseases. In both periods disease causality theories have been more than medical postulates; they have also implied political ideologies.

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