Date of Award
Fall 12-2013
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Goss, Andrew
Second Advisor
Mitchell, Mary
Third Advisor
Atkinson, Connie
Abstract
The emergence of germ theory during the nineteenth century transformed Western medicine. By the 1870s, public health officials in the American South used germ theory to promote sanitation efforts to control public health crises, such as yellow fever epidemics. Before the discovery of mosquito transmission of yellow fever, physicians of the late nineteenth century believed the disease was spread by a highly contagious germ. Prominent medical practitioners of New Orleans, such as Confederate Army veteran Dr. Joseph Jones, used available scientific knowledge and investigation to attempt to control yellow fever during the Reconstruction period, a period rife with political and racial tension in New Orleans. This paper will analyze nineteenth century Southern medicine through the work of Dr. Joseph Jones and will argue that despite the use of cutting edge scientific methods of the era, the political challenges of the Reconstruction period shaded the public health policies in New Orleans.
Recommended Citation
Rolman-Smith, Polly M., "Bacteria and Politics: The Application of Science to the Yellow Fever Crisis in Reconstruction New Orleans" (2013). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1768.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1768
Included in
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Political History Commons, United States History Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.