miasma

Episode 67: Fever on the Frontier

 in Podcasts  tagged daniel drake / epistemology / germ theory / knowledge / miasma / milk sickness / poison / traditional medicine by

In the early 19th century, a strange new illness, seemingly unknown to medicine, ravaged settler communities in the American Middle West. As fierce debates about this new disease, now called milk sickness, raged – was it from toxic swamp gasses? arsenic in the soil? infectious microorganisms? from the poor constitutions […]

Episode 42: The Lady with the Lamp

 in Podcasts  tagged biostatistics / crimean war / epidemiology / florence nightingale / miasma / nursing / pierre louis / quetelet / william farr by

Florence Nightingale stands as one of the most important reformers of 19th century medicine — a woman whose belief in the power of reason and statistical thinking would critically shape the both the fields of epidemiology and nursing. This episode discusses the fascinating story of Nightingale’s legacy — how modern […]