miasma theory of disease

Miasma theory of disease - the theory that diseases are caused by "bad air".

Although inoculation was practiced, the miasma theory of disease was still believed.

All those concerns, born of the miasma theory of disease, were thus mixed with urbanistic concerns of the management of populations.

Meteoropathy is different from historical conceptions of "air" causing diseases and strongly influencing people's sense of well-being (see Miasma theory of disease).

The incorrect historical miasma theory of disease, which held that diseases are spread by foul air-in this case fouled by the stench of decomposing corpses.

A former believer in the miasma theory of disease, Whitehead played to disprove false theories, eventually focusing on John Snow's idea that cholera spreads through water contaminated by human waste.

By the mid-1850s the miasma theory of disease was largely superseded by the germ theory of disease, creating extensive interest in microorganisms and their interactions with other forms of life.

Thus, its functions largely overreached simple law enforcement activities, and included public health concerns, urban planning (which was important because of the miasma theory of disease; thus, cemeteries were moved out of town, etc.), surveillance of prices, etc.

Considered as the science of the internal order of the community, it was a comprehensive term, which included today's public law, administrative science, the early political economy, public health concerns, urbanism and urban planning (important in the light of the miasma theory of disease), etc.

At the end of the 1830s, Paris prefect Claude-Philibert Barthelot, comte de Rambuteau, realised that the problems regarding traffic and hygiene in the old over-populated districts had become a cause for concern; in accordance with the miasma theory of disease, then prevailing, it was important to "let air and men circulate".