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Chapter 6 - The Plague in Southern Italy in 1815–1816

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2022

By
Alberto Tanturri
Edited by
Irma Taavitsainen ,
Turo Hiltunen ,
Jeremy J. Smith  and
Carla Suhr
Irma Taavitsainen
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Turo Hiltunen
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Jeremy J. Smith
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Carla Suhr
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
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Summary

In 1815–16, the small town of Noja (now called Noicattaro), on the Adriatic coast of southern Italy, was affected by a plague epidemic, the last manifestation of this disease in Italy and one of the last in Continental Europe. Besides having serious demographic consequences at local level, the plague also had a considerable influence on medical and scientific debate concerning the nature of the disease and its feasible cures. In the first part, this study reviews some of the most significant doctrinal positions on the subject emerging within the southern medical profession. In the second part, it concentrates on the therapeutic strategies actually experimented with in Noja, highlighting the rejection of traditional pharmacopoeia and mainstream treatments such as emetics, purgatives, and bloodletting. Yet the medicines validated and tested as an alternative to these therapeutic modalities were at best palliatives, if not at times highly toxic substances. As a whole, the analysis shows how, when confronted with the plague, medical science continued to grope in the dark, despite wanting to free itself from traditional dogmas; the doctors' intervention on the epidemic certainly had negative effects on the course of the disease and on the trend of the fatality rate.

Keywords

plaguesouthern Italyearly nineteenth centurymedical thoughtplague therapies
Type
Chapter
Information
Genre in English Medical Writing, 1500–1820
Sociocultural Contexts of Production and Use
 , pp. 89 - 103
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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