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119
In Hobart Totm, hO\-Jever, \·lhere an increasing population had produced
similar results, the citizens were isolated from the benefits of examp le
and slwnbered in ignorance of the dangers of their situation .
those toho slumber there is a time of t-Jakening;
Town it was in 1853 .
claimed many 1 ives .
For
for the people of Hobart
The year began t-Jith a severe epidemic of influenza t-Jhich
So destructive t-Jere its effects that the Tasmanian
Colonist was induced to take some interest in health matters.
is freedom from disease.
Health
To understand the exact nature of a disease,
its causes , and its prevention, its origin must be understood.
underst and and destroy the origin of disease is to understand and create
health .
"On the issue of the or1g1ns of disease, especially of
infection," bet-Jailed the Lancet in 1853 , 11all is darkness
and confusion, vague theory and vague speculation.11
11\'Jh at is cholera ?" it asked in listing explanations of
the most dramatic and most horrible of cont emporary
epidemi cs. "Is it a fungus , an insect , a miasm, an
electrical disturbance, a deficiency of ozone, a morbid
off-scouring from the intestinal canal ? We knot-J
nothing; t-Je are at sea in a t-Jhirlpool of conj ecture .11 3
Three rival theories attempted to explain the phenomenon of infection.
First, there t-Jas the germ theory of infection by a living organism;
it lacked conclusive experimental proof, it had few fol lot-Jers .
second t-Jas that of spontaneous generation of disease t-Jithin the blood;
being chemi cal in its formation, it ruled out the possibility of contagion .
The third, the atmospheric or pythogenic , was the most popular and the
most widely held .
To
The
As it t-Jas also the one commonly accepted in Hobart
Tmn in 1853 , R. Lambert 's description is helpful :
. Thirdly, there t-Jas the atmospheric or pythogenic theory, much
vaguer and more emb racing than the others . Under certain
mysterious circumstances > it held, the atmosphere became
charged with an 11epidemic influence11 t-Jhich in turn became
malignant t-Jhen it combined t-Jith the exhalations of organic
decomposition from the earth. The resulting gases , ferment s
or miasms (the agents were diverse) produced diseases .
Capab le of infinite variation, the theory generally
dis countenanced contagion . As it seemed to explain the
partiality of epidemic diseases for the undrained, uncleaned,
filthy and stinking areas of the totms inhabited by the poor,
the pythogenic theory found t-Jidespread acceptance among
the first generat ion of Eng lish sanitary reformers .
Florence Nightingale and Edt-Jin Chadt-Ji ck clung to it throughout
as
3 R. Lambert Sir John Simon (London, 1963) , p. 48 .