Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History

526 Pages·2006·4.66 MB·English

by  Jo Hays

EPIDEMICS
AND
PANDEMICS

EPIDEMICS
AND
PANDEMICS
Their Impacts on
Human History
J. N. Hays
Santa Barbara, California * Denver, Colorado * Oxford, England
Copyright © 2005 by J. N. Hays
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of
brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hays, J. N., 1938–
Epidemics and pandemics : their impacts on human history / J. N. Hays.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-85109-658-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-85109-663-9 (ebook)
1. Epidemics—History. 2. Diseases and history. I. Title.
RA649.H293 2005
614.4'9—dc22
2005025962
07 06 05 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
1 EPIDEMIC IN ATHENS, 430–427 B.C.E. 1
2 MALARIA IN ANCIENT ROME 9
3 PLAGUE OF THE ANTONINES 17
4 FIRST PLAGUE PANDEMIC, 541–747 23
5 SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC IN JAPAN, 735–737 31
6 LEPROSY IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE 35
7 SECOND PLAGUE PANDEMIC, 1346–1844 41
8 “FRENCH DISEASE” IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE 69
9 EPIDEMICS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA 79
10 EPIDEMICS AND THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR, 1618–1648 97
11 PLAGUE IN ITALIAN CITIES, 1630s 103
12 EPIDEMICS IN CHINA, 1640–1644 113
13 PLAGUE IN LONDON, 1665 119
14 SMALLPOX IN ICELAND, 1707–1709 131
v
vi Contents
15 PLAGUE IN MARSEILLES, 1720–1722 135
16 SMALLPOX IN BOSTON, 1721 143
17 SMALLPOX IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE 151
18 PLAGUE IN MOSCOW, 1771 163
19 INFLUENZA PANDEMIC, 1781–1782 171
20 YELLOW FEVER IN HISPANIOLA, 1793–1804 177
21 YELLOW FEVER IN PHILADELPHIA, 1793 185
22 FIRST CHOLERA PANDEMIC, 1817–1824 193
23 CONSUMPTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 201
24 SECOND CHOLERA PANDEMIC, 1827–1835 211
25 THIRD CHOLERA PANDEMIC, 1839–1856 227
26 “FEVERS” AND THE GREAT FAMINE IN IRELAND, 1846–1850 239
27 TYPHOID FEVER IN CITIES, 1850–1920 249
28 YELLOW FEVER IN NEW ORLEANS, 1853 259
29 FOURTH CHOLERA PANDEMIC, 1863–1875 267
30 CARRIÓN’S DISEASE IN PERU, 1870–1871 281
31 SMALLPOX IN EUROPE, 1870–1875 287
32 MEASLES IN FIJI, 1875 297
33 FIFTH CHOLERA PANDEMIC, 1881–1896 303
34 INFLUENZA PANDEMIC, 1889–1890 315
Contents vii
35 CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN HAMBURG, 1892 321
36 THIRD PLAGUE PANDEMIC, 1894–? 331
37 SIXTH CHOLERA PANDEMIC, 1899–1923 345
38 SLEEPING SICKNESS IN EAST CENTRAL AFRICA, 1900–1905 355
39 TYPHOID MARY’S “EPIDEMICS” 363
40 CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN NAPLES, 1910–1911 369
41 POLIOMYELITIS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1916 377
42 INFLUENZA PANDEMIC, 1918–1919 385
43 LUNG CANCER IN THE UNITED STATES,
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY 397
44 POLIOMYELITIS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1945–1955 411
45 SEVENTH CHOLERA PANDEMIC, 1961–PRESENT 421
46 AIDS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1980s 427
47 CONTEMPORARY AIDS PANDEMIC 439
48 THE MAD COW CRISIS AND TRANSMISSIBLE
SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES, 1985–PRESENT 449
49 CONTEMPORARY MALARIA 457
50 CONTEMPORARY TUBERCULOSIS 465
Epilogue 473
Some General Books on Epidemics 479
Glossary 481
Index 485
About the Author 513

PREFACE
This book intends to provide accurate, up-to-date historical information about
fifty significant epidemics and pandemics. It is important for readers to under-
stand that the book is a work of historical,not medical, reference—I am a histo-
rian, not a physician.
It is arranged chronologically, so that the first chapter concerns an epi-
demic of the fifth century B.C.E. and the last chapters discuss several contempo-
rary pandemics. Each chapter presents its information in a consistent format
that allows the reader to gain information about the time, place, and scale of
the epidemic, its significance, the background against which it occurred, how
contemporaries understood and responded to it, and issues that remained unre-
solved about it then, or have remained so since. Each chapter concludes with
references and suggested readings, both of which are good sources for those who
wish to learn more about the epidemic.
The fifty epidemics discussed in the book fall into several different cate-
gories, and I have chosen them for several reasons. Some of them—the most ob-
vious candidates for inclusion—were major pandemics that resulted in high
death tolls and serious social disruption over wide areas. The three plague pan-
demics (those that began in the sixth, fourteenth, and nineteenth centuries) and
the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 illustrate that category.
But because estimates of death tolls from the past are often unreliable (if
not entirely unknown), no accurate list of the “fifty greatest killers” could ever
be compiled. The significance of epidemics has not depended solely on their
mortality rates. Some have affected particular communities in especially chal-
lenging ways. The cholera pandemics of the nineteenth century, for example,
often disrupted the societies they struck much more severely than their death
tolls would suggest. Some particular epidemics, such as plague in Italian cities
in the 1630s and in London in 1665, illustrate (in different ways) the evolution
of the second plague pandemic. Others have been chosen because human re-
sponses to them underwent significant changes as they transpired, as was true
of the United States poliomyelitis epidemic of the 1940s and 1950s, and of the
typhoid epidemics in late nineteenth-century cities.
ix