The miasma theory (also called the miasmatic theory) held that diseases such as cholera, chlamydia or the Black Death were caused by a miasma (Μίασμα, ancient Greek: "pollution"), a noxious form of "bad air". The theory explained the origin of these epidemic diseases was miasma, an emanation from rotting organic matter.
The miasma theory was accepted from ancient times in Europe, India and China. The theory was eventually displaced in the 19th century by the discovery of germs and the germ theory of disease.
Read more about Miasma Theory: Etymology, Miasma in The West, Contagionism Versus Miasmatism, Miasma in China, The Influence of Miasma: Sanitary Engineering Reforms in The West, The Influence of Miasma: in Southern China, From Miasma To Germ Theory: The Debates On Cholera, A Modern Miasma
Famous quotes containing the words miasma and/or theory:
“There is something about the literary life that repels me, all this desperate building of castles on cobwebs, the long-drawn acrimonious struggle to make something important which we all know will be gone forever in a few years, the miasma of failure which is to me almost as offensive as the cheap gaudiness of popular success.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“By the “mud-sill” theory it is assumed that labor and education are incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill, is a perfect illustration of what a laborer should be—all the better for being blind, that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly.... Free labor insists on universal education.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)