Miasma Theory, Explained

Miasma theory was the idea that poisonous, putrid, bad-smelling air spread epidemic diseases. While it was popularized by the Hippocratic School around 400 BCE, it continued to influence medicine until well into the 19th century (and arguably, still does today). In this video, Patrick Kelly will tell the story of miasma theory's origins and how it evolved over time into something called zymotic theory.

☠️NONE OF THE INFORMATION IN THIS VIDEO SHOULD BE USED AS MEDICAL ADVICE OR OPINION. IT IS FOR GENERAL EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT☠️

🎥 VIDEOS MENTIONED 🎥

🔗 L I N K S 🔗

🔑 P A T R O N S 🔑
Michelle H
Rourou Y
Joanne K
Joe B
Kristoffer R
Brandon K
Brendan P
Karly N
Ron Blumenfeld
Dane M

📜 S O U R C E S 📜

Passions and Tempers by Noga Arikha

Miasma

Black Death

Plague and Microscopes

Fracastoro & Contagion

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[TheRennat]

Rooting for the Youtube algorithm to start promoting your channel; the effort you put into your videos deserves it.

[krustyknight]

I wonder if 100 years from now, if some of our scientific beliefs will be seen in the same light as the maisma theory

[paulas]

I’m a retired nurse with a huge love of learning, especially biology, pathophysiology, medicine, disease and history. I’ve just found your channel and I love it! I’m plowing through your videos! I’d love to hear more about medicine in the Americas, traveling nurses, Frontier medicine, the medical knowledge of Indigenous peopleI, and so on. I don’t remember what video it was that I learned you are a teacher, but since I never told my teachers this I will tell you-It was the great teachers I had that instilled in me my love of learning, especially my High School Biology teacher, that turned me to science and Nursing. Just know that because of a teacher, I went on to help heal the sick, bring babies into the world, and hold off death at least for a time. Thank you so much! You make a difference. ❤

[LeninFN]

Miasma theory wasn't too far off tbh. Where there's bad smells there's also lots of bacteria. They just didn't have the full picture

[Practicalinvestments]

The dude really painted his wife then was like ‘hol up hol up! Stay right there! Lemme get the microscope baby!’ 😂

[courage]

I appreciate the effort made by all of these thinkers, I imagine it would be very difficult to understand disease without having the technology of the microscope.

[theturkeychild]

I remember reading about Leeuwenhoek reporting on his discovery of sperm to the royal society in London and how he had to be even more circumspect than a youtuber about how he had come to be doing that

[luckyluke]

Love the journalistic-esque content lately!

Super small comment-- at times I feel like cuts are done a hair too soon which causes words to bleed into each other. E.g. at 11:18 the "groceries" and "but" jarred me for half a second as they bled into each other.

The pausing between chapters is done well, to help me digest what you said, but more "breaths" between cuts themselves feels like it'd be good too. Extra quarter second maybe?

[JW-vinh]

I just saw a comment from 12 days ago saying that you only had 12k subs and now you have 45.1k. I found your channel maybe a little over a week ago and have been trying to remember to leave a comment on each one to help out. It seems that all of us doing that over the past week or so has really helped, almost quadrupling your subs in under 2 weeks. You absolutely deserve it. Your content is beyond amazing!

[ecofishes]

i’ve been binging a few of your videos and went to subscribe and saw you only had 50k and i was shocked. i thought you were at LEAST a 500k channel. absolutely criminal

[esotericpince]

2:33 this bit is so cool to me. it really shows the thought process of what eventually became modern epidemiology

[ellemarr]

Just found your channel and I can’t believe you haven’t gotten a million subs. Come on algorithm, do your thing! Seriously, this is becoming one of my favorite channels 😊

[athenaatwar]

this is incredible my autism is tingling I can’t wait to watch the rest of your videos. i’m serious i was diagnosed with autism and and now a young adult struggling to settle into my interests after getting through the pandemic and mental health issues and starting life with my partner, then finally finishing school and getting a job, I now get to enjoy my interests rather than get graded on them. This video is so up my alley and your channel is amazing. Thank you for summarizing this story so well – it is so well supported with original documents and explained in a nuanced way.

[MohammedAlrubaye-nx]

Patrick you have been such a pleasure to watch thank you for all you do.

[oliviagoff]

So glad i came across your channel, i was genuinely surprised that not alot of people have found your channel. The content is really well amde and researched.

[Jamesssssssssssssss]

I can understand why they thought it spread via smells. Sometimes really bad smells can make my throat sore for a little.

[zane]

just found your channel and wow your in depth coverage is phenomenal

[KevinButler]

Another fascinating video with some hilarious parts to make it stick. Keep up the incredible work!

[lorenstiteler]

The concept actually shows up earlier than the 5th century in the Chinese literature. In the early Han Dynasty text, the Huángdì Nèijīng, which is itself a compendium of still earlier texts, there is a single occurrence of the term 瘴 zhàng. This term appears in a passage describing pestilential disease and is understood to refer to putrid air generally arising from damp areas. This places the term more around the turn of the common era, if not older.

Interestingly, though the term makes an appearance, as a concept it doesn't appear to have played a significant role in the development of Chinese medical theory and is conspicuously absent from the 傷寒論, or "Treatise on Cold Damage", a treatise on epidemic disease and the most famous herbal medicine text in the history of the field.

[VishalKjha]

May the algorithm gods spread this beauty onto other people's feed. This is so well put together. I'm thoroughly impressed!!!