Skip to main content

Search from vocabulary

Content language

Concept information

Preferred term

miasma theory of disease  

Definition

  • The miasma theory of disease causation has some incipient roots in Greek and Roman medicines, in particular in Hippocrates's “On Airs, Waters, and Places.” It developed as a naturalistic theory during the Renaissance and was especially popular in the 19th century to explain yellow fever, malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, cholera, and other diseases. According to this theory, disease causation relates to environmental emanations (gases), or miasmas. [Source: Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage; Miasma Theory of Disease]

Belongs to group

URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/miasma_theory_of_disease

Download this concept: