Supplementary readings for Week 6's lectures include excerpts
from:
-
Astronomia Magna (1537) by Paracelsus (1493-1541);
- excerpts from
the Diary of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703):
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Medical theory based on balancing bodily humors did a reasonably good job of helping practitioners diagnose and treat the symptoms of many common illnesses. But it provided little guidance for solving the puzzle of infectious disease. That didn't stop the flow of questions!
- How and why do illnesses like scarlet fever, measles, and whooping cough travel through a community?
- What determines who will become infected?
- Can cosmic causes account for localized outbreaks?
- Does an individual's morality affect his/her likelihood of contracting a disease that strikes a whole community?
- Is something physical being passed from person to person through contact?
- Is there a pervasive putrefaction in the environment?
- What can be done to stop, or at least slow, such a disease's spread once it appears?
- What measures can be taken to prevent it from striking in the first place?
In their search for answers, where did curious medical practitioners like Fracastoro, Paracelsus, and Sydenham start? Which questions opened up the most fruitful lines of investigation? How could anyone know when an answer had been found?
Samuel Pepys (pronounced PEEPS) enjoyed a long and distinguished career
as an administrator in the British Navy. For ten years, beginning
on January 1, 1660, Pepys kept a personal diary. Thanks to his diligence
and wit--and his remarkable ability to be in the thick of whatever it was
that was happening--we are able to experience everyday life in Restoration
London, and witness the historic events of that period ourselves, as though
firsthand.
Of interest to us are his entries relating to the Great Plague which
struck London in 1665 and 1666. Like the hero in Daniel Defoe's fictional
account of the plague year, Pepys remained in London throughout that terrible
time.
Although Pepys kept his diary in "real time," Defoe's fictional account
didn't appear until 1722, nearly sixty years after the fact. But
Defoe didn't have the benefit of Pepys' diary to furnish him with all the
details that bring his novel to life. Pepys had left his diary to
his alma mater -- Magdalene College, Cambridge. Written in shorthand
and sprinkled throughout with words and phrases in several different foreign
languages, the diary remained hidden from public view until it was 'discovered'
in 1818. A small selection was published in 1825. More complete
editions (minus many of Pepys' more personal, and often quite risque, entries)
were published in 1848 and 1875. The complete diary (some 10 volumes,
in English) was published for the first time by the University of California
Press in 1970.
How do the real and fictional "journals of the plague year" compare? |
