By Frank M. Snowden. 478 pp. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1996. $59.95. ISBN 0-521-48310-7. (Studies on the History of Science and Culture. Vol. 25.) By Catherine Kudlick. 293 pp. Berkeley, Calif., University of California Press, 1996. $40. ISBN 0-520-20273-2.
The complex relations among disease, science, attitudes, beliefs,and society are richly documented in Frank Snowden's fascinatingbook Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884–1911. In 1884,science was just beginning to have an impact on the understandingof cholera. In 1852, John Snow had reported his classic epidemiologicstudies wherein he removed the handle from London's Broad Streetpump to prevent access to the contaminated water supply. RobertKoch had just reported his discovery of the cholera vibrio in1883. The debate between the proponents of contagionism (thetheory that disease was spread from person to person) and anticontagionism. . . [Full Text of this Article]
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