Observations Upon the Origin of the Malignant Bilious, or Yellow Fever in Philadelphia. From the holdings of Center for the History of Medicine/Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine—Harvard Medical School. Yellow fever is known for bringing on a characteristic yellow tinge to the eyes and skin, and for the terrible “black vomit” caused by bleeding into the stomach. Known today to be spread by infected mosquitoes, yellow fever was long believed to be a miasmatic disease originating in rotting vegetable matter and other putrefying filth, and most believed the fever to be contagious. The first major American yellow fever epidemic hit Philadelphia in July 1793 and peaked during the first…

Poincaré, Émile Léon. Prophylaxie et géographie médicale :des principales maladies tributaires de l’hygiène. From the holdings of Center for the History of Medicine/Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine—Harvard Medical School. Tuberculosis, also known as “consumption,” “phthisis,” or the “white plague,” was the cause of more deaths in industrialized countries than any other disease during the 19th and early 20th centuries. By the late 19th century, 70 to 90% of the urban populations of Europe and North America were infected with the TB bacillus, and about 80% of those individuals who developed active tuberculosis died of it. Causes of Tuberculosis For most of the 19th century, tuberculosis was thought to be…

The Mosquito: Its Relation to Disease and Its Extermination. From the holdings of Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine—Harvard Medical School. The Hay–Bunau–Varilla Treaty of 1903 created the Panama Canal Zone and allowed the US government to begin building its 51–mile waterway through the Isthmus of Panama in May 1904. The transoceanic waterway opened in 1914, approximately four centuries after Charles I, King of Spain, conceived of a waterway across the Isthmus to facilitate Spain’s colonial interests in the New World. In constructing the Panama Canal, American planners and builders faced challenges that went far beyond politics and engineering. The deadly endemic diseases of yellow fever and malaria were dangerous…

Syphilis, 1494–1923 Des Inoculations Syphilitiques. From the holdings of Center for the History of Medicine/Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine—Harvard Medical School. Syphilis was first reported in Europe in 1494 among soldiers (and their camp followers) involved in a war between France and Naples. The disease was striking in two ways: for its unpleasantness and for its status as a new disease, unknown to the ancient medical authorities. Syphilis would remain a significant social and medical problem through the mid-20th century. The “French Disease” Until the 19th century, syphilis was known by many different names, but the most common was the “French Disease.” (The French called it the “Neopolitan disease,”…

Spanish Influenza in North America, 1918–1919 Spanish Influenza, Three-Day Fever, The Flu. From the holdings of Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library—Harvard College Library. The Spanish influenza pandemic, which began in 1918, caught every nation by surprise. It infected an estimated 500 million people and killed 50 to 100 million of them in three waves. Governments around the world responded in ways that were reactive and almost ineffective before the pandemic ended in 1919 just as suddenly as it began one year earlier. The Spanish influenza pandemic differed from previous influenza pandemics in its unprecedented virulence. Its unique characteristics included unusually high case fatality, especially among 20– to 40–year-olds. Allies fighting…