[A biography of infectious diseases: Hans Zinsser and his Rats, Lice and History].

Hans Zinsser, a well-known bacteriologist and immunologist in the United States in the early 20th century, made great advancement in the research of pathogen of typhus and its vaccine, with the epidemic typhus renamed after him. His masterpiece, Rats, Lice and History, teased out the co-evolutionary process of infectious diseases and their related organisms, focusing on specific cases and the development history of typhus. In this sense, he revealed the tremendous impact of infectious diseases on human history. He examined microorganisms and humans equally rather than simply from a human point of view. He analysed the pathological features of infectious diseases and provided professional insights into historical events of infectious diseases, such as the origin of syphilis and the plague of Athens, based on sufficient citations and references. He also advocated interpreting the history of infectious diseases with a holistic insight of history. His book, Rats, Lice and History, has been reprinted many times after its first publication, driving the following scholars to put the history of infectious diseases into a grand background of human development, enhancing the comprehension of ecology and politics and promoting the development of research in the history of diseases including life sciences, history and other disciplines.

[Schofield and the first spread of western medicine in Shanxi].

After the Second Opium War, the signing of the Tientsin Treaty and the Peking Treaty legitimized the missionary activities and authorized the missionary the rights to enter inland China for propagating their religious doctrines. In the late 1870s, the"The extraordinary famine of the Ding Wu year"and the subsequent epidemic provided the opportunity for missionaries to enter Shanxi. Dr. Schofield, sent by the China Inland Mission, arrived in Taiyuan in 1880, set up clinics and practised there. He died of typhus after treating a typhus patient in the summer of 1883. Schofield stayed and practised in Taiyuan for 2 years and 8 months. Later, the China Inland Mission and other missionaries donated to establish a Shanxi's first western medicine Hospital to commemorate Schofield. The medical activities of Dr. Schofield enlightened and promoted the Shanxi people's understanding of western medicine.

Control of typhus fever in Finland during World War II.

The article describes the measures taken against the threat of typhus epidemic in Finland during the Second World War. Comparisons between countries at war and their different typhus prevention methods are made. The main method of typhus prevention in Finland consisted of regular sauna bathing, which was culturally acceptable and very efficient when combined with heating of the clothing. The Finnish troops remained virtually louse-free by ecological and traditional methods, and thus the spread of typhus fever in the army could be prevented.

William Henderson (1810-72) and homeopathy in Edinburgh.

William Henderson was appointed professor of general pathology at Edinburgh University and physician-in-ordinary to the ERI. He produced several papers on clinical and pathological aspects of aortic and heart disease and contributed to the differentiation of typhus and typhoid fevers. He became a homeopathist and was at the centre of a controversy surrounding the introduction of homeopathy to Edinburgh in the 1840s. This involved the Faculty of Medicine, the RCPE and medical societies as well as medical personalities, prominent among whom were Professor Sir James Y Simpson, Professor Sir Robert Christison and Professor James Syme. Many Scottish medical graduates were involved in the introduction of homeopathy to the British Isles. Glasgow is one of only four UK cities still to have a homeopathic hospital.

El regreso de las epidemias: salud y sociedad en el Perú del siglo XX / The return of epidemies: health and society in the Peru of XX century

Estudia diversos aspectos desde la epidemia de peste que atacó Lima en 1903, hasta la del cólera de 1991. Se ocupa también de la historia de Manuel Nuñez Butrón, sanitarista puneño, recreando el impacto que tuvo la enfermedad colectiva en la sociedad peruana del siglo XX

Two pathographies: a study in illness and literature.

This study compares two autobiographical descriptions of illness--the seventeenth-century John Donne's Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and the twentieth-century Cornelius and Kathryn Ryan's A Private Battle. I begin by identifying the basic structure in both narratives as parallel to that of the case history, and then show how each individual's experience is shaped by the conditions of illness appropriate to their respective cultures. Lastly, I discuss the way in which both authors understand and represent sickness, as well as their respective therapies, in terms of a particular metaphoric construct: for Donne, it is the analogy between illness of the body and illness of the soul; for Ryan it is the analogy between illness and war. The stance of each towards his illness is conditioned by this metaphoric model: Donne's is one of acceptance, of conforming to the will of God; Ryan's is one of resistance, of fighting heroically until the very end. Thus these metaphors are functional as well as aesthetic: they serve as figural modalities whereby the patient/author hopes to transcend his illness.