Dynamis

Reseñas Dynamis 45(1)

2025-07-03T09:59:45+00:00

Disease landscapes beyond the “Spanish flu” pandemic: temporal patterns, re-centered narratives (1889-1970s)

2025-07-03T10:03:19+00:00

“C’est par l’accent que l’histoire met sur le changement et sur les différences ou écarts affectant les changements qu’elle se distingue des autres sciences sociales et principalement de la sociologie”, argued Paul Ricoeur in his classic study La mémoire, l’histoire,l’oubli. We could add to this that change —the passage from one collective situation or circumstance to another— would constitute not only the most specific object of history, but also a major impetus for historians to do research and, in general, for thedevelopment of historical science. As Reinhart Koselleck pointed out in Future Pasts. On the semantics of historical time, changesproduce a “penetration [rupture] of the horizon of expectations” (taking these as “the future made present”) that inevitably leads to a “restructuring of the space of experiences” (taking these as “the past made present”). Each generation of historians would, thus, feel compelled from the changes occurring in its present to rewrite history in order to re-imagine collective destiny (and vice versa).

By the rivers of Babylon: the 1889-cholera outbreak in Iraq, production of medical knowledge, and construction of scientific periphery

2025-07-03T10:03:18+00:00

By examining the 1889 cholera outbreak in the Iraqi Ottoman provinces, this article explores the global dynamics of medical knowledge production at the turn of the nineteenth century. While the 1892-1893 outbreak is typically viewed as a pivotal moment in the history of cholera with the triumph of germ theory, this study investigates an earlier epidemic to analyze both the transformation of medical understanding and the complex knowledge exchanges between Western and Eastern scientific communities. The article critically examines the hierarchical structures that mediated scientific communication, revealing how established power dynamics shaped the circulation of medical knowledge. By examining these intellectual networks this article demonstrates how contemporary scientific discourse constructed and reinforced the concept of scientific periphery. By doing so, this study seeks to integrate Baghdad into broader narratives of global medical history and scientific knowledge production.

Inventing aerosols: Auguste Trillat (1861-1944) and the medical meteorology of influenza

2025-07-03T10:03:17+00:00

This article explores Auguste Trillat’s pioneering research into the airborne transmission of influenza and the impact of meteorological factors on epidemics. A distinguished French chemist and microbiologist at the Institut Pasteur, Trillat was the first to demonstrate the airborne transmission of influenza. He applied the concept of aerosol in physics to epidemiology and updated miasma theory, which had become obsolete after Pasteur’s microbiology. Initially focused on formaldehyde chemistry, Trillat became increasingly interested in the airborne transmission of infectious diseases and methods for its control. His work on antisepsis drew inspiration from historical fumigation practices that uti lized formaldehyde as an effective antiseptic. Trillat’s experiments on air quality and pathogen growth in decaying environments revealed that factors such as humidity and temperature critically influenced the vitality and airborne trans mission of the pathogen. He highlighted the role of atmospheric conditions in epidemics and introduced the concept of “condensation nuclei,” in which micro bes act as droplet nuclei, aiding airborne transmission under certain atmospheric conditions. This model linked the spread of influenza to specific meteorological contexts. Trillat demonstrated that recently exhaled air, rich in moisture and nu tritive gases, promoted epidemic spread. His insights significantly advanced the fields of epidemiology and medical meteorology, gaining recognition for mili tary applications post-WWI in France and post-WWII worldwide, particularly in chemical and biological warfare. His findings on airborne pathogen transmission informed strategies for both offensive and defensive measures in military set tings, underscoring the importance of air quality control to mitigate the spread of infectious agents in hazardous environments.

Devil’s choice: Ricardo Jorge, the ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic and the pneumonization of plague, 1899-1933

2025-07-03T10:03:15+00:00

The Portuguese hygienist Ricardo Jorge gained some international recognition for his management of the plague outbreak that struck the city of Porto in 1899. However, it would be his experience of the “Spanish flu” pandemic of 1918-1920 that played a key role in his rejection of the rat-flea model of transmission then in force in favor of the greater relevance of interhuman trans mission. This paper aims to explain the evolution of his medical-epidemiological conception of plague, on one hand by analyzing Jorge’s institutional background in Portugal and within international sanitary organizations (Organisation Inter nationale d’Hygiène Publique) and on the other hand by examining his scientific contribution, based on epidemiological and historical data, to the “pneumoni zation” of the disease, especially in relation to emergence mechanisms of epi demic outbreaks (epidemiogenesis). In a series of publications running from 1919 to 1933, Jorge made key contributions to the global redefinition of one of mankind’s most dreaded scourges.

Towards a complex ecology: an essay on plague history in Brazil (1890s-1970s)

2025-07-03T10:03:14+00:00

This paper offers a periodization of the history of plague in Brazil. It is based on the ways in which experts and public health officers framed the disease, the elements they considered responsible for its spread, and changes in these elements over time. In accordance with this periodization, the article first argues that the ecology of plague became progressively more complex in the 20th century, suggesting the rise of a more ecological-oriented view among Brazilian doctors. It then proposes that political and institutional transformations also shaped this intellectual change in the epidemiological reasoning about pla gue in Brazil. The periodization is divided into three phases. The first phase ex tends from 1897, with the start of discussions about the risk of plague arriving in Brazil from Asia, to 1920, with a substantial reduction in the number of plague cases in coastal cities. In this initial phase, the framing of the plague transitioned from a disease spread by humans and the objects they touched to one spread by rats and their fleas. The second phase, from 1920 to 1950, was characterized by the hegemony of rats in epidemiological explanations for the presence of plague in cities and rural areas of Brazil. The third and final phase, from 1951 to the early 1970s, was characterized by the progressive inclusion of wild rodents into scientific explanations for the spread and especially persistence of plague in some foci, mainly in the North-East. At the end of this phase, the scientific consensus in Brazil was that wild rodents constituted the main plague reservoir.

Salud y desequilibrios en la centuria de las Luces: hospitales y médicos en Cádiz a través del Catastro de Ensenada

2025-07-03T10:03:13+00:00

El levantamiento del Catastro de Ensenada, impulsado por don Zenón de Somodevilla, I marqués de la Ensenada, fue mucho más allá de lo catastral y puso de manifiesto la diversidad sanitaria y su complejidad en la Corona de Castilla. De ese modo, el presente trabajo establece tres objetivos, por un lado, analizar la distribución territorial de dichas actividades, los ingresos de los profesionales sanitarios en la actual provincia de Cádiz, valorar la información de los distintos niveles documentales que componen dicho Catastro para este tipo de estudios y, por último, espacializar y analizar la complejidad de datos a través de Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG).

Los discursos médicos sobre la maternidad y la reproducción en medio de la controversia sobre la degeneración racial en Colombia, 1918-1920

2025-07-03T10:03:11+00:00

Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar cómo los médicos Miguel Jiménez, Luis López de Mesa, Calixto Torres y Jorge Bejarano abordaron la maternidad y la reproducción humana en el contexto de la discusión sobre la degeneración racial en Colombia durante la década de 1920. Para ello, se empleó una metodología histórica con enfoque de género, llevando a cabo un análisis de contenido de fuentes primarias, como el libro: Los problemas de la raza en Colombia y, artículos del periódico El Tiempo, publicados entre mayo y julio de 1920, además de consultar fuentes secundarias relacionadas con la historiografía nacional e internacional sobre el tema. Encontré que, los médicos consideraban que la gestación desempeñaba un papel fundamental en la degeneración racial, pero esta perspectiva se entrelazaba con variables como la clase, el género, la raza y el lugar de origen. Así mismo, los médicos reflejaron una visión sesgada hacía la maternidad enmarcada en el determinismo y racismo que buscó justificar las desigualdades sociales atribuyendo la degeneración racial a las clases menos privilegiadas.

Asistencia médica ante el horror nazi: el resurgimiento de la Cruz Roja Republicana Española en Francia tras la II Guerra Mundial

2025-07-03T10:03:10+00:00

En 1945, la Cruz Roja Republicana Española (CRRE), que se había extinguido a raíz del desenlace de la Guerra Civil Española, reapareció en el seno del exilio republicano, en Francia, con el propósito de ofrecer asistencia sanitaria a miles de refugiados españoles entre los que se incluían los supervivientes de los campos de concentración nazis, así como quienes huían de la dictadura militar instaurada por Franco. En la primavera de ese año funcionaban dos dispensarios, uno en París y otro en Toulouse. En verano, el Gobierno francés permitió formalmente que los trabajadores sanitarios extranjeros —médicos y odontólogos— atendieran a sus compatriotas en centros asistenciales de carácter benéfico. Además, a finales de 1947 otros dispensarios ubicados en diversas localidades del sudoeste de Francia se sumaron a los ya existentes. En todos estos centros, la asistencia era proporcionada por personal sanitario de origen español, esto es, médicos, odontólogos, enfermeras, practicantes, etc., asimismo refugiados republicanos. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las coordenadas de la reaparición de la CRRE y su papel central en la asistencia sanitaria de los republicanos españoles supervivientes de los campos de concentración nazis. Para ello hemos consultado, entre otras fuentes, la documentación depositada en el Archivo de la República Española en el Exilio.

Política y gestión de la información científica en la Argentina: surgimiento y transformación entre las décadas de 1910 y 1970

2025-07-03T10:03:08+00:00

La Historia de la Ciencia en el actual panorama de la divulgación científica

2025-03-12T22:06:39+00:00

Es reseña de:

La herencia de Eva: del instinto de curiosidad a la ciencia moderna

Carmen Estrada

Taurus, 2024. ISBN 9788430626465

Entre venenos

Carmel Ferragud, José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez

Valencia : PUV, 2023

El canon oculto

José Manuel Sánchez Ron

Barcelona : Crítica, 2024

Historia de la tecnología a través de veinte objetos

Pedro Ruiz Castell

Diputación Provincial de Valencia = Diputació de València, Institució Alfons el Magànim, 2023. ISBN 978-84-1156-014-6

Lo que sueñan los androides

David Calle

Madrid : Aguilar, 2023