Historical Epidemiology

Principles of reasoning in historical epidemiology.

The case of John Snow has long been important to epidemiologists and public health officials. However, despite the fact that there have been many discussions about the various aspects of Snow's case, there has been virtually no discussion about what guided Snow's reasoning in his coming to believe his various conclusions about cholera. Here, I want to take up this question in some detail and sh...

The epidemiology of mesothelioma in historical context.

Primary malignant mesothelial tumours were recognized by pathologists before asbestiform minerals (chrysotile, crocidolite and amosite) were mined commercially. The discovery, 40 yrs ago, of a causal link with crocidolite and the wide-ranging epidemiological studies which followed are the subject of this review. Early case-control and descriptive surveys, supplemented by cohort studies in insul...

Historical changes in epidemiology of diffuse panbronchiolitis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Japanese pulmonologists, experienced in treating patients with diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) prior to the 1980s, have uniformly observed that new incidences of DPB are now a rare event in Japan. However, there is no epidemiological data to support this observation. We examined epidemiological trends of the number of patients with DPB in a large company. DESIGN The co...

Historical background and epidemiology of cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM).

Bacterial meningitic deafness: historical development of epidemiology and cellular pathology.

Meningitis resulting in labyrinthitis and its associated hearing loss was first described by several authors during 1864 and 1865 but it was not integrated into the otological cannon until H. Knapp's publications of 1871. These reports were incorporated by St John Rossa in his textbook of 1873. Politzer, in 1882, included a fuller description of the clinical symptoms. Analysis of records of the...