Virus

The smallpox vaccination that has been propagated in Styria by representatives of authorities, doctors and clergymen since 1802 did not only encounter approval.There was resistance from the beginning, which was expressed mainly by the rural population.It is hard to estimate the extent of this rejection, since the records about those who were "renitent against vaccination" are not conclusive and show too low figures.In fact, a double-digit percentage can be assumed.However, there were significant regional differences in Styria: while the vaccination coverage was relatively high in the Styrian capital of Graz and the southern parts of the region, the refusal was apparent especially in the area of Bruck and Judenburg.Women and mothers played an important role with regards to vaccination; they often took the decision whether children should be vaccinated or not.Did they decide against it, this did not happen for irrational and anti-progressive reasons only, as ascribed to them by the supporters of vaccination.The main argument for the refusal was health-related concerns.Such risks were real, even if their relevance was partly misjudged compared to the dangers of a smallpox disease.In order to put pressure on those who refused the vaccination, the so-called "Untertanenstrafpatent" of 1781 was applied in Styria over many years.On that basis, many prison sentences were inflicted on those "renitent against vaccination".

Over the long 18th century, the Viennese press showed a broad content-related and functional diversification. In this framework, the preventive fight against smallpox left various imprints. Besides newspaper reports, it was possible to include the communication of administrative and legislative steps, reasoning and instructive texts as well as commercial advertisements concerning inoculation and vaccination. The survey focusses on the official Wienerisches Diarium (founded in 1703, renamed Wiener Zeitung in 1780), additions come from the commercial press of the 1760s and 1780s. This wealth of information results in a many-faceted picture of the areas of theoretical knowledge or practice which influenced the public debate on both methods of immunisation and a spectre of reactions reaching from rejection on the one hand towards propaganda on the other. Not only medical theory and practice, driven by philanthropist enlightened attitude and commercial endeavour, and medical police, but also (pastoral) theology, (moral) philosophy and factual as well as emotional perceptions of non-professionals are medially reflected. In this many-voiced discourse, newspapers emerge as multi-functional channels of an integrative up-to-date public exchange which consequently brought financial gains and esteem for publishers and editors.

Smallpox posed a significant epidemiological threat in the early modern period. The eradication of smallpox in the 20th century was preceded by numerous medical discoveries, such as vaccination. Even before that, so-called variolation, i.e. an older and riskier form of smallpox protection, had spread in Europe after being imported from the East in the 1720s. This text explains how Europeans fought smallpox even before variolation was introduced. The records in the medical literature of the second half of the 17th century show that there were at least two independent traditions within which attempts were made to reduce the effects of smallpox. The first was based on an academic medical environment and can apparently be first found in the work of Franciscus de le Boë. The other was part of a folk tradition, the so-called “buying of pustules”, which was practised in the territory of northern Italy, the British Isles and Poland. In order to be able to present the mentioned methods in a broader context, this paper deals with contemporary views of the pathology of smallpox and also gender-specific aspects of the history of the disease.

Während der amerikanischen Besetzung Japans begann ein steiler Rückgang der Tuberkulose– die für Jahrzehnte, wenn nicht Jahrhunderte, die führende Todesursache gewesenwar – sowohl hinsichtlich der Inzidenz wie der Mortalität. Die Ursachen für diesenRückgang bleiben ein Mysterium. Dies ist sowohl auf die Limitationen der verfügbarenDaten zurückzuführen, wie auf der Epidemiologie der Tuberkulose inhärente Schwierigkeiten.Nichtsdestoweniger kann die sorgsame Erfassung des Rückgangs dieser Erkrankungin seinen zeitlichen und räumlichen Aspekten helfen, zu einem besseren Verständnisdieses spektakulären, auch in international vergleichender Perspektive beachtenswertenPhänomens zu gelangen.

Die Zeitschrift "Virus - Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte der Medizin" ist das Publikationsorgan des Vereins für Sozialgeschichte der Medizin und erscheint einmal jährlich. Sie versammelt wissenschaftliche Beiträge verschiedener Disziplinen, die sich mit Themen aus den Bereichen Medizin, Gesundheit und Krankheit in historischer, kultur- und/oder sozialwissenschaftlicher Perspektive empirisch auseinandersetzen. Weitergehende Einschränkungen für Beitragsvorschläge in thematischer oder methodischer Hinsicht bestehen nicht. Der "Virus" publiziert vornehmlich Beiträge mit Bezug zur Geschichte der Medizin in Österreich, dessen Nachbarländern sowie der ehemaligen Habsburgermonarchie. Vergleichend angelegte Arbeiten können aber über diesen Rahmen auch hinausgreifen. Hinsichtlich der behandelten Zeiträume bestehen keine Eingrenzungen, jedoch stehen Beiträge zur Medizin in der Neuzeit und der Moderne/Postmoderne im Vordergrund (16.-21. Jahrhundert).