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Previous Volume 338:1551-1552 May 21, 1998 Number 21 Next

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By Nancy Tomes. 351 pp., illustrated. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1998. $29.95. ISBN 0-674-35707-8.

Just about 100 years ago, American medical students were being taught the "germ theory" of infectious disease for the first time as scientific orthodoxy. This theory replaced the older "zymotic theory," which was based on the concept that the agents of infection were chemical ferments, the products of decaying filth that could, with the right atmospheric conditions, be generated spontaneously. Although this concept led to the preventive strategy of sanitary science, a great paradox emerged. Despite the material and scientific progress of the 19th century, urban Americans of all ages, classes, and races had an all-too-personal knowledge of infectious disease.

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