Rinderpest and mainstream infectious disease concepts in the eighteenth century

Abstract

Bacteriology became an established academic discipline with the discoveries and the subsequent classification of a number of pathogenic bacteria during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The first attempt to trace the historical background to this new development appeared as early as 1887 as a series of lectures given by Friedrich Loffler and dedicated to his mentor Robert Koch.' LoMffer paid only scant attention to developments prior to 1800, although he was more appreciative of the work of Athanasius Kircher (160240) than many other commentators,2 and devoted several pages to Leeuwenhoek's discoveries. His interest in the eighteenth century was limited to a brief mention of works inspired by the plague in Toulon, and an even briefer reference to Lancisi's views concerning malaria, in addition to a paragraph on Plenciz' theories of contagium animatum and their relationship to Leeuwenhoek's observations.3 Loffler's historical essaysand several later works4-contain no mention of the diseases specific to cattle which played havoc in Europe at a time when veterinary science hardly existed.5 Medical authorities were forced to take a long, hard look at these diseasesbovine pleuropneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, and, above all, rinderpest.' In the process, they learned much about the control of epizootics and

Global Rinderpest Eradication: Lessons Learned and Why Humans Should Celebrate Too

“…Rinderpest has had a profound influence on public health. The 19th century devastation of Africa by rinderpest was preceded by a century of recurring European epizootics and panzootics that led to an estimated 20% loss of dairy cattle, undoubtedly retarding economic development and increasing poverty, malnutrition, and the infectious diseases that follow [25,26]. Rinderpest is alleged to have been imported from Europe into the United States in the 1860s but did not become established [27,28].…”

A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 30: Invertebrate Zoology and Parasitology During the 1700s

“…She did collect enough specimens, notes, and sketches for a book, yet had hoped to stay longer. Illness, the heat, and humidity forced her to return to Amsterdam (Wettengl 1998 e , f ). Leeuwenhoek's letters inspired her to study her insects with a magnifying glass, and she reported on details she discovered by doing so.…”

“…He was already studying the epidemiology of influenza and malaria, and his publication suggested quarantine, isolation, and slaughter of infected cattle, which was effective when rinderpest reached the Papal States (1715). Following Fracastoro and Rammazzini, he believed in inanimate agents of infection (Wilkinson 1984, 1992:38–44). In another work, De noxiis paludum effluviis (1717), Lancisi recommended draining swamps to eliminate both noxious air that caused malaria and “maligna insecta” (Futcher 1936:547–548, passages translated in Kean et al1978, I:22).…”

“…Also in 1762, a prominent Viennese physician, Marco Anton Plencic (or Plenciz, 1705–1786), published his Opera medico physica , which included “perhaps a more closely reasoned discussion of [contagious diseases] than any other contemporary treatise” (Wilkinson 1984:145). There were actually four treatises in his Opera , the first expounding his contagion theory, and the second and third applying it to the diseases of smallpox and scarlet fever (Kruta 1975).…”

Global Eradication of Rinderpest: Yea or Nay?

“…Such was the havoc wrought in France that the Controller‐General of Finances, Henri Bertin, advanced funds to Claude Bourgelat to establish in 1762 what became the first modern veterinary school in Lyon because he needed a cadre of trained manpower in rural areas to combat the ravages of rinderpest in draught oxen. 1 Within 20 years most European governments founded similar establishments for the same purpose.…”