Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 7.1 Paris, map of Jacques Gomboust (partial), 1653
health, was frequently referenced.
11
Many doctors followed his recommendations
and looked to the environment to explain morbidity and mortality. Many of them
considered air, and its intimate and frequent contact with the body, a transmission
medium for miasma or sulfurous pollution emitted by the soil whose fumes were
often considered morbid, even deadly.
12
Their analysis was con
rmed by the high
frequency of intermittent fevers in wetlands where a generalized weakening of the
body shortened the life of their residents.
13
Eighteenth century doctors paid particular attention to cities whose statistics
—
which at that time were being developed extensively
revealed excess mortality:
not only was the natural balance negative (more deaths than births), but the life
expectancy of their residents was lower than in the neighboring countryside.
14
It
became the natural tendency for doctors to view these environments through this
neo-Hippocratic lens and to consider them as extreme and arti
—
cial
types of
11
Corbin (
1986
,
1988
), Barles (
1999
) and L
é
cuyer (
1986
).
12
Boissier de Sauvages (
1754
) and M
é
phitis (
1765
).
13
Lancisi (
1717
).
14
Poussou (
1992
) and Kunitz (
1993
).
