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Abstract
The idea that water-drinking is healthy took shape in medical science throughout Europe from the seventeenth century onwards. This article adds new insights to this development through a focus on the Dutch field of medicine between 1630 and 1750. It shows how a major scientific context for this shift could be found in the specific combination of Helmontian iatrochemistry and Cartesian medicine. Yet, the development of thinking about drinking water was also very much shaped by social practices and technological advances outside of medicine. Chronologically, the increased social practice of the capture of rainwater and the technological improvements of cisterns and filtration systems in the seventeenth century precede the more positive medical opinion on water in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. The idea that water-drinking was beneficial came into medicine through social practice, rather than the other way around. In the eighteenth century, water-drinking was seen as beneficial in the mainstream of medicine, with explicit references being made to earlier technological advances in filtration.
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Abstract
In the poem La Luce, composed in 1685 and dedicated to Christina of Sweden, Giovanni Michele Milani propounds a mechanical and vitalist (meta-)physics of light that complies with Christian tenets by adopting a peculiar version of Democritean atomism. His lecture for the Roman Simposiaci Academy indicates the extent of Milani’s dissatisfaction with Aristotelian philosophy. While he attended the Physico-mathematical Academy and the heterodox Congresso medico romano, he nevertheless, signed La Luce – published posthumously in 1698 with a preface by Francesco Redi – as “Accademico Umorista.” When we examine La Luce together with some excerpts of the unpublished work of Milani’s friend and fellow member of this literary institution – the Dialoghi eruditi by Giuseppe Giusto Guaccimanni – we are presented with an interesting cultural scenario. It would seem that some Umoristi might have joined the Queen in the effort to devise a Christian experimental philosophy which was open to alchemy. The posthumous publication of the poem may well have been triggered by the rivalry between the Umoristi and the Academy of the Arcadia.
Rise and Fall of Disease in Europe
Author:
Winner of the 2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award
In A History of Population Health Johan P. Mackenbach offers a broad-sweeping study of the spectacular changes in people’s health in Europe since the early 18th century. Most of the 40 specific diseases covered in this book show a fascinating pattern of ‘rise-and-fall’, with large differences in timing between countries. Using a unique collection of historical data and bringing together insights from demography, economics, sociology, political science, medicine, epidemiology and general history, it shows that these changes and variations did not occur spontaneously, but were mostly man-made. Throughout European history, changes in health and longevity were therefore closely related to economic, social, and political conditions, with public health and medical care both making important contributions to population health improvement.
Readers who would like to have a closer look at the quantitative data used in the trend graphs included in the book can find these it here.
In A History of Population Health Johan P. Mackenbach offers a broad-sweeping study of the spectacular changes in people’s health in Europe since the early 18th century. Most of the 40 specific diseases covered in this book show a fascinating pattern of ‘rise-and-fall’, with large differences in timing between countries. Using a unique collection of historical data and bringing together insights from demography, economics, sociology, political science, medicine, epidemiology and general history, it shows that these changes and variations did not occur spontaneously, but were mostly man-made. Throughout European history, changes in health and longevity were therefore closely related to economic, social, and political conditions, with public health and medical care both making important contributions to population health improvement.
Readers who would like to have a closer look at the quantitative data used in the trend graphs included in the book can find these it here.
Rise and Fall of Disease in Europe
Author:
Winner of the 2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award
In A History of Population Health Johan P. Mackenbach offers a broad-sweeping study of the spectacular changes in people’s health in Europe since the early 18th century. Most of the 40 specific diseases covered in this book show a fascinating pattern of ‘rise-and-fall’, with large differences in timing between countries. Using a unique collection of historical data and bringing together insights from demography, economics, sociology, political science, medicine, epidemiology and general history, it shows that these changes and variations did not occur spontaneously, but were mostly man-made. Throughout European history, changes in health and longevity were therefore closely related to economic, social, and political conditions, with public health and medical care both making important contributions to population health improvement.
Readers who would like to have a closer look at the quantitative data used in the trend graphs included in the book can find these it here.
In A History of Population Health Johan P. Mackenbach offers a broad-sweeping study of the spectacular changes in people’s health in Europe since the early 18th century. Most of the 40 specific diseases covered in this book show a fascinating pattern of ‘rise-and-fall’, with large differences in timing between countries. Using a unique collection of historical data and bringing together insights from demography, economics, sociology, political science, medicine, epidemiology and general history, it shows that these changes and variations did not occur spontaneously, but were mostly man-made. Throughout European history, changes in health and longevity were therefore closely related to economic, social, and political conditions, with public health and medical care both making important contributions to population health improvement.
Readers who would like to have a closer look at the quantitative data used in the trend graphs included in the book can find these it here.
Author:
Abstract
After the conquest of many infectious diseases and other health problems of industrializing societies, morbidity and mortality patterns in Europe became dominated by a range of chronic diseases, including ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, various cancers, liver cirrhosis, dementia, and depression, as well as by injuries, including road traffic injuries and suicide. More recently, a new ‘plague’ occurred in the form of aids. This chapter traces long-term trends in these diseases, which again often manifested themselves in a striking pattern of ‘rise-and-fall’. Among the factors involved in the ultimate decline of these diseases, improvements in the effectiveness of medical care now also played a prominent role than in the past, but economic, political and sociocultural changes were still important in the background. As in previous periods, there were striking differences between European regions in the timing of the decline of these health problems, with Northern, Western and Southern Europe taking the lead.
Author:
Abstract
Industrialization and urbanization were accompanied by a rise and then decline of many different diseases. This chapter first traces the history of a number of communicable diseases, including three intestinal infections (cholera, dysentery and typhoid), tuberculosis, syphilis, four childhood infections (scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough and diphtheria ) and two respiratory infections (pneumonia and influenza). It then traces long-term trends in maternal, infant and perinatal mortality, and in three nutrient deficiencies (pellagra, rickets and goitre), peptic ulcer and appendicitis, and lung diseases caused by occupational and environmental exposures (such as pneumoconiosis, mesothelioma and the non-specific effects of air pollution). The factors involved in the ultimate decline of these diseases were many, with an important role for public health interventions. There were striking differences between European regions in the timing of the decline of health problems of industrializing societies, with Northern and Western Europe again often taking the lead.
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Abstract
In the pre-industrial period, mortality trends in Europe were characterized by frequent mortality crises, often in connection with war, famine and/or epidemics. This chapter reviews long-term trends in wars and war-related deaths, in homicide, and in the occurrence of famines, and then looks at secular trends in four diseases that often caused massive epidemics: plague, smallpox, typhus and malaria. The rise of these health problems, often in the distant past, is traced, as well as their ultimate decline. The factors involved in their decline range from better diplomacy to draining marshes, and from vaccination to the ‘civilization process’, and were often facilitated by economic, political and sociocultural change. There were striking differences between European regions in the timing of the decline of health problems of pre-industrial societies, with Northern and Western Europe taking the lead.
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Abstract
Over the past three centuries, health of Europeans has improved spectacularly, with a doubling of life expectancy at birth. Below the surface of these changes in life expectancy lies a fascinating pattern of rising and then falling diseases. The explanation of these trends has been a battle of ideas, between those who believed rising life expectancy to be a by-product of economic development, and others who have emphasized the role of human agency, in the form of public health and medical care. This book exploits an unique dataset of long-term trends in around 40 diseases, and their variations between European countries, to identify the main drivers of secular trends in population health.
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Abstract
This chapter reviews secular trends in mortality, causes of death, morbidity, height, and disability-free life expectancy since 1700. While mortality declined, trends in morbidity have been somewhat less favourable, so that the number of both healthy and unhealthy life-years has increased. A preview of the disease-specific changes presented in subsequent chapters shows that trends have mostly occurred in a striking pattern of ‘rise-and-fall’. These findings are then used to present a modified version of the ‘epidemiologic transition’, with three stages: a first stage in which ‘health problems of pre-industrial societies’ started to decline, a second stage in which ‘health problems of industrializing societies’ started to decline, and a third stage in which ‘health problems of affluent societies’ started to decline.
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Abstract
This short chapter contains a summary of the main conclusions of this book, as well as an analysis of the main risks to keeping population health at its current, high levels. Threats include increased geopolitical instability, increasing socioeconomic inequality, and global environmental changes such as climate change. We also can no longer ignore the damage that has been done to other living species, which is one of the darkest sides of human progress in the previous centuries.