Abstract

The article explores how Victorian visual culture was a vital force in the construction and dissemination of medical theories on the connection between climate and health. During the nineteenth century, the seemingly inexplicable and deadly nature of many epidemic diseases compelled British medics to investigate all possible reasons for their spread. Focusing on cholera, the article will examine how, in an effort to understand what was seen at the time as a mysterious disease, Victorian medics increasingly concentrated on the climate of India and unusual weather in Britain as propagators of the malady. Supplementing the dominant miasma theory, medics explained how the seemingly airborne sources of cholera resulted from a state of England’s air that resembled the tropical environment of the subcontinent. In an effort to highlight the correlation between cholera and the atmosphere, they produced medical climatology reports containing diagrams that juxtaposed the data on the disease’s mortality rates with measurements of meteorological phenomena. These images, rather than serving simply as illustrations, became a crucial part of medical arguments. As the article will demonstrate, in attempting to visualize the medical climatology of cholera, the diagrams mapped the disease to certain atmospheric conditions, suggesting that cholera could be quantified and controlled. Yet, in doing so, the images also implied that cholera had a real material presence in the air of Britain, powerfully evoking visual tropes of the disease as a substance that had the potential to contaminate the very landscape of the nation.

中文翻译：

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“雾中的流行病”：维多利亚时代视觉文化中的医学气候学和霍乱

摘要

本文探讨了维多利亚时代的视觉文化如何在构建和传播有关气候与健康之间关系的医学理论方面发挥至关重要的作用。在19世纪，许多流行病看似莫名其妙且致命，这迫使英国医务人员调查了其传播的所有可能原因。以霍乱为重点，本文将探讨维多利亚时代的医务人员如何努力了解当时被视为一种神秘疾病的原因，从而越来越关注印度的气候和英国作为疟疾传播者的异常天气。作为主要的mi气症理论的补充，医务人员解释了霍乱的看似空中传播的霍乱源是如何由类似于次大陆的热带环境的英格兰空气状态引起的。为了强调霍乱与大气之间的关系，他们制作了医学气候学报告，其中包含图表，该图表将有关疾病死亡率的数据与气象现象的测量并列。这些图像，而不只是用作说明，已成为医学争论的关键部分。正如该文章将证明的那样，在试图可视化霍乱的医学气候时，这些图将疾病映射到了某些大气条件，这表明霍乱可以被量化和控制。然而，这样做的话，这些图像也暗示霍乱在英国的空气中确实存在，这强烈地唤起了这种疾病的视觉比喻，使之成为可能污染整个国家景观的物质。他们制作了医学气候学报告，其中包含图表，这些图表将有关疾病死亡率的数据与气象现象的测量并列。这些图像，而不只是用作说明，已成为医学争论的关键部分。正如该文章将证明的那样，在试图可视化霍乱的医学气候时，这些图将疾病映射到了某些大气条件，这表明霍乱可以被量化和控制。然而，这样做的话，这些图像也暗示霍乱在英国的空气中确实存在，这强烈地唤起了这种疾病的视觉比喻，使之成为可能污染整个国家景观的物质。他们制作了医学气候学报告，其中包含图表，这些图表将有关疾病死亡率的数据与气象现象的测量并列。这些图像，而不只是用作说明，已成为医学争论的关键部分。正如该文章将证明的那样，在试图可视化霍乱的医学气候时，这些图将疾病映射到了某些大气条件，这表明霍乱可以被量化和控制。然而，这样做的话，这些图像也暗示霍乱在英国的空气中确实存在，这强烈地唤起了这种疾病的视觉比喻，使之成为可能污染整个国家景观的物质。