Miasms and Social Change

Summary

While the miasms have frequently been studied from the clinical perspective, little has been done about identifying their origins. However, if social factors are included among the possible environmental causes of illness, a significant pattern emerges. Study of historical, biological, anthropological and palaeopathological information reveals a number of points. There is a temporal and geographical correlation between the earliest appearances of the miasmatic diseases and the emergence of class societies. The different impact of colonisation on the health of Europeans and indigenous peoples appears contradictory until social relations are taken into account. Surveys of modern European society indicate a direct relationship between higher social status and lower mortality rates even when living standards are high. The indigenous classless societies of both North America and Australia appear to have divided illnesses into those arising from accidents or poisoning and those arising from social factors. Study of the mental aspects of the miasms is also revealing in this context. The symptoms of psora show a strong relationship to the circumstances of developing social divisions and unequal distribution of resources. The symptoms of tuberculosis (and leprosy) and syphilis show a similar relationship to the circumstances of social tension and collapse. In conclusion, it would appear that the miasms may well have their origin in the development of the first class societies, suggesting that a prerequisite of their permanent cure is the restoration of egalitarian social organisation.

Key words

Miasms - Class - Status - Disease - Colonisation - History

References

• 1 Agrawal Y R. A Comparative Study of Chronic Miasms. 3rd revised ed. Delhi; Vijay Publications 1995
• 2 Ackerknecht E H. A Short History of Medicine. Baltimore; The John Hopkins University Press 1982
• 3 Allen J H. The Chronic Miasms: Psora and Pseudo-psora. Reprint edition (Volumes I and II combined). New Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 1998
• 4 Bagley C. Race Relations: The Impact of Western Colonisation on the Health and Welfare of Australian Aborigines with particular reference to Coranderrk Aboriginal reserve, Victoria. London; published by the author 2004
• 5 Berkow R, ed. Merck Manual of Medical Information. Home ed. New York; Simon and Schuster 1997
• 6 Boericke W. Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory. Reprint ed. Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 1990
• 7 Burnett J C. Vaccinosis and Its Cure by Thuja. Reprint ed. New Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 2001
• 8 Bynum W F. Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press 1994
• 9 Cawte J. Healers of Arnhem Land. Sydney; University of New South Wales Press 1966
• 10 Choudhury H. Indications of Miasm. New Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 2003
• 11 Close S. The Genius of Homoeopathy. Reprint ed. Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 1995
• 12 Coolican R E. Australian Rural Practice. Glebe; Australasian Medical Publishing Co. 1973
• 13 Evans R G, Baer M L, Marmor T R eds. Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? The Determinants of Health of Populations. New York; Aldine de Gruyter 1994
• 14 Friedman R. The Story of Scabies. Vol. 1. New York; Froben Press 1947
• 15 Hahnemann S. Organon of Medicine (translated by William Boericke). Reprint of 6th ed. Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 1996
• 16 Hahnemann S. The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure (translated by Prof. Louis H. Tafel). Reprint ed. New Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 1995
• 17 Harman C. A People's History of the World. London; Bookmarks 1999
• 18 Karlen A. Plague's Progress A Social History of Man and Disease. Paperback ed. London; Phoenix (an imprint of Orion Books) 2001
• 19 Kent J T. Lectures on Homoeopathic Philosophy. Reprint ed. New Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 1993
• 20 Lewis T H. The Medicine Men Oglala Sioux Ceremony and Healing. Lincoln; University of Nebraska Press 1990
• 21 McNeill W H. Plagues and Peoples. Reprint ed. Harmondsworth; Penguin Books 1979
• 22 Manchester K. Tuberculosis and Leprosy in Antiquity: An Interpretation. In: Medical History a quarterly journal devoted to the history of medicine and related sciences. Volume 28. London; The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine 1991
• 23 Marx K. Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. Reprint ed. Moscow; Progress Publishers 1981
• 24 Proust A J, ed. History of Medicine in Canberra and Queanbeyan and their Hospitals. Gundaroo; Brogla Press 1994
• 25 Proust A J. A Companion of the History of Medicine in Australia 1788 – 1939. Forrest [The Author];
• 26 Quétel C. The History of Syphilis (translated by Judith Braddock and Brian Pike). London; Polity Press 1992
• 27 Roberts H A. The Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy. Reprint ed. New Delhi; B. Jain Publishers 1995
• 28 Ross J DC. Gonorrhoea: past and present. Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh volume 26. Edinburgh; Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh 1996
• 29 Sankaran R. The Substance of Homoeopathy. 4th ed. Mumbai; Homoeopathic Medical Publishers 1999
• 30 Speight P. A Comparison of the Chronic Miasms (Psora, Pseudo-psora, Syphilis, Sycosis). [no publisher, no date]
• 31 Verano J W, Ubelaker D H eds. Disease and Demography in the Americas. Washington; Smithsonian Institution Press 1992
• 32 Wilson M E, Levins R, Spielman A eds. Disease in Evolution Global Changes and Emergence of Infectious Diseases. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences vol. 740. New York; The New York Academy of Sciences 1994
• 33 Wulff H R, Pedersen S A, Rosenberg R. Philosophy of Medicine an Introduction. 2nd ed. Oxford; Blackwell Scientific Publications 1986

1 Wilson 1994 p. 275.

2 See Marx 1981 pp. 61 – 74.

3 Hahnemann 1995 pp. 9 and 87 ff.

4 Hahnemann 1995 pp. 9 and 83 ff.

5 Hahnemann 1995 p. 7; Hahnemann 1996 §§ 80 f. pp. 167 – 70.

6 Allen 1998 p. 69; Close 1995 (pp. 103 – 4) considered tuberculosis to be psora and to have much in common with leprosy, which Hahnemann considered to be psora (Hahnemann 1995 p. 10).

7 Manchester 1991 pp. 163 – 4.

8 Manchester 1991 p. 164.

9 Manchester 1991 pp. 164 – 6.

10 Manchester 1991 p. 168.

11 Quoted in Friedman 1947 p. 377.

12 Quoted in Friedman 1947 p. 377.

13 Quoted in Friedman 1947 p. 377.

14 Friedman 1947 p. 52.

15 Quétel 1992 p. 41.

16 Quétel 1992 pp. 40 – 2.

17 McNeill 1979 p. 166.

18 Berkow 1997 p. 878.

19 Quétel 1992 p. 34.

20 Ross 1996 p. 240.

21 Ross 1996 p. 240.

22 Ross 1996 p. 240.

23 Ackerknecht pp. 3 – 4.

24 Manchester 1991 pp. 164 – 5.

25 Manchester 1991 p. 164.

26 Karlen 2001 p. 42.

27 Karlen 2001 p. 35.

28 Friedman 1947 p. 377.

29 Verano c. 1992 p. 41.

30 Karlen 2001 p. 43.

31 Proust 1994 p. 1.

32 Bagley 2004 pp. 15 – 16.

33 Proust 1994 p. 1; Proust 2003 p. 1; Ackerknecht p. 11.

34 Ackerknecht p. 11; Proust 2003 pp. 1 – 2; Bagley 2004 p. 15; see also Lewis 1990 and Cawte 1966.

35 Quétel 1992 p. 35.

36 Verano c. 1992 p. 41.

37 Bagley 2004 p. 16.

38 Verano c. 1992 p. 41.

39 Lewis 1990 pp. 1 – 2.

40 Bagley 2004 p. 18.

41 Proust 1994 pp. 1 – 2.

42 Proust 1994 p. 2. Note that they “cohabited” as opposed to “married”.

43 Coolican 1973 p. 73.

44 Bynum 1994 p. 75; Friedman 1947 p. 11.

45 Evans 1994 p. 5 (author's emphasis).

46 Evans 1994 p. 7 (author's emphasis).

47 Friedman 1947 chapter VI.

48 Harman 1999 p. 3.

49 Harman 1999 p. 8.

50 Harman 1999 p. 2.

51 Harman 1999 pp. 24 f.

52 Harman 1999 pp. 33 f.

53 Harman 1999 pp. 29 – 31.

54 Harman 1999 p. 23.

55 Hahnemann 1995 p. 7.

56 Hahnemann 1996 § 78 p. 166.

57 Kent 1993 p. 146.

58 Kent 1993 pp. 136, 140 & 150.

59 Hahnemann 1995 pp. 8 ff.

60 Roberts 1995 pp. 281 – 2; Creasey, 10/11/2002, lecture at the London School of Classical Homoeopathy.

61 Kent 1993 pp. 140 – 151.

62 Burnett 2001 passim.

63 Hahnemann 1995 pp. 7 – 141.

64 Wulff 1986 p. 10.

65 Agrawal 1995 pp. 32 & 40; Choudhury 2003 pp. 50 & 98; Speight pp. 2 – 9.

66 Sankaran 1999 p. 70.

67 Sankaran 1999 pp. 27 – 8.

68 Sankaran 1999 p. 70.

69 Agrawal 1995 pp. 11 – 12; Choudhury pp. 18 & 31; Speight pp. 2 – 9.

70 Agrawal 1995 p. 12.

71 Sankaran 1999 pp. 26 – 7.

72 Boericke 2000 p. 620.

73 Roberts 1995 p. 191.

74 Allen 1998 pt. 1 pp. 9 – 73.

75 Bynum 1994 p. 226 (author's emphasis).