Review by Choice Review
Coleman's principal thrust is to reconstruct the methods of epidemiology in practice immediately prior to the advent of the germ theory of disease (1870-80), a concept that affected the whole etiological reasoning of communicable diseases and obviously the development of epidemiology as we have come to perceive it now. In exposing the development of epidemiologic methods in the first part of the 19th century, Coleman analyzes the process of inquiry of the yellow fever epidemics that occurred in Saint-Nazaire in northern France in 1861 and in Swansea in northern Britain in 1865, and compares the results to those of an earlier epidemic that occurred in Gibraltar in 1828. The approach taken is to recount the course of the three epidemics of yellow fever and to reconstruct the investigative efforts and ultimate preventive measures taken by the local authorities, based on the work of the physicians who headed the epidemiologic inquiry in their respective communities. This is a scholarly and informative book, which is well written, thoroughly annotated, and tastefully illustrated with engravings of the period. Any library with an interest in the history of medicine or the study of public health measures and epidemiologic principles would be enriched by adding this volume to its collection.-G. Eknoyan, Baylor College of Medicine
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
