Air, Miasma and Contagion in the Time of Hippocrates and the Survival of Miasmas in Post-Hippocratic Medicine (Rufus of Ephesus, Galen and Palladius)

Abstract

The Greek wordmiasma , which still survives in English, was described by Émile Littré, the editor of Hippocrates who is best known for hisDictionnaire de la langue française as a ‘medical term’. He gives it the following meaning: “Fumes that originate from organic substances and which, spreading through the air and attaching themselves to certain bodies, exercise a pernicious influence on animals. In particular, unpleasant smells that originate from certain contagious diseases. Variolous and pestilential miasmas.” However, the Greek wordmiasma was not originally a medical term. Derived from the verbmiaino , which means ‘to stain’ (for example with