Plague Legends: from the Miasmas of Hippocrates to the Microbes of Pasteur

Reviews of Litsios' Plague Legends This finely crafted, scholarly book traces the long 2000 years of western civilization during which philosophy, literature, and the arts flourished but medical science remained a confused, often dangerous, body of ignorance.... Litsios' book presents an expert account of what the discovery of microbes and their pathogenic potentials meant to human health. Robert S. Desowitz, PhD, DSc, Emeritus Professor of Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology, University of Hawaii; Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Plague Legends is a fascinating contribution to the history of medicine.... Plague Legends ... would be a very useful required volume in courses on the history of medicine. Perhaps more importantly, it should be read and discussed by students in schools of public health, where a deeper understanding of the origins of Public Health as a profession and as a broad set of academic topics would be highly desirable. Burton Singer, Ph.D, Charles and Marie Robertson Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University