#germ theory of disease

[domtopvarric]

Unfortunate that when people talk about "writing fanfic to cope" they're only ever talking about the one kind of thing because there's actually such a wide range of interesting insanities that we're erasing with that. For example how I spent the weekend figuring out how to work masking into dragon age.

#most agree that some diseases can be caught through the air and then prevented by covering your nose & mouth #but this is because of a general belief in Miasma & Bad Air and not like. an understanding of germ theory. #so correct conclusion but wrong reasons. which is slightly entertaining to me. #also covering yr nose & mouth is a thing basically everywhere below Hightown bc of the chokedamp. #all this to justify depicting my ocs & faves masking in public. copium.jpeg

[ephemeral-winter]

I know that scientists are being in fact more precise when they call it airborne transmission but I feel like we as a society have not properly grappled with the fact that the miasma theory of disease is actually basically true

#or partially true for some diseases #John Snow thought he was being soooo clever coming up with germ theory and 175 years later it’s like #well well well the tables sure have turned #idk guys it just tickles me #also I like saying miasma out loud #rare pic of me in the wild

[technicolorxsn]

amputee sabitsuki my beloved<3333

#there are way too many references to her losing her legs/having her legs replaced for it not to be true in my mind #my personal theory is its probably bc of rust given most depictions of the disease+character are associated with decay and deterioration #the parade ward (presumably where ppl with rust are heavily quarantined) is full of children rotting alive yknow? #of course most examples of rust start at the head but idk #anyway sorry i have .flow brainrot again #love that game sm #oh anyway while im thinking #i think possiibly oreko could be a kid from a different ward #shes not often associated with rust and i think the closest she gets is like. oreko-in-a-jar in the orange maze? #idk #i dont think she has rust specifically #anyway i think oreko and sabitsuki became friends at the hospital but were seperated due to contamination #n maybe oreko would sneak out to visit? hence the diving helmet (to keep out germs‚ at least in a childs mind) #and also why the first time you interact with her in flow she gives you one #so you two can safely(-ish) interact #also #with how close a lot of the gang related parts of the game are to the hospital i feel like sabitsuki mightve come back a lot to visit #probably mostly for getting patched up #theres only so much a bartender can do for you #or whatever you interpret the cleaners to be #honestly not sure what to make of those

[shartstarion]

agh it’s 2am and i’m reading about miasma theory and having patho brainworms

#i love disproven scientific theories sm #if u don’t know it was the prevailing theory before microbes were discovered #that disease spread through ‘miasma’ or bad odours / bad air #‘germ theory’ as it is called was only accepted in the 1880s/90s #we can debate forever about when patho is set but the field was really in its infancy #ppl literally would not believe that microbes were infectious agents #it was argued that they were instead just byproducts of disease

[skyclan-funny-name-squad]

There's no way the cats actually know what a germ is right? Like, germ theory is still basically new in the timeline of human history, so these cats definitely would have zero idea germs exist right? like they can obviously tell about disease spreading and the like, but it's much more likely they've developed mythology about spirits or do miasma theory right? I think that would be interesting, medicine cats wrapping lavender around their noses to help prevent disease, putting nice smelling things in the nursery to help bade off disease to the kits, I just think there's a lot of world building that can be done here because theres no way in hell the average clan cat fully 100% knows that things can even be microscopic

#warrior cats #warriors #warrior cat #warrior

[daisywords]

some misc worldbuilding questions to get your gears turning:

Do they have germ theory or some equivalent? How do they conceptualize the spread of disease and infection?

Is the everyday economy based more on trade/barter or currency? Is the currency valuable in its own right, or is it just something agreed upon to have value (eg. salt or gold vs. paper money)

What is their main method of lighting? What resources does this use?

Primary mode of transportation? How much does this vary based on things like purpose of travel, social class, etc.?

How much of a knowledge/education gap is there between social classes? Is there a baseline of education that everyone gets/is expected to have?

What are the most popular modes of storytelling? Is everyone telling campfire stories? Are they going to plays? puppet shows? are they going to the cinema? are they reading novels or epic poetry? Are there any folk characters or pop culture things that most people are familiar with?

Where does most people's moral framework primarily come from? Religion? Philosophy? Are there different schools of thought? How much do they vary?

Is there anything considered scandalous/improper/taboo that's normal in your own culture? and vice versa

Do most people live and die where they are born, or is it common to relocate and travel widely? how much does this vary by class/profession/region?

What do they do with criminals? Do they have an extensive prison system? If so, who funds/runs it? If not, how is crime discouraged/managed? Are there specific punishments for specific crimes?

How rigid are their class boundaries? How possible/common is it for someone to change social classes?

Is there anything that people get dangerously addicted to in your world? How accessible is it?

How easy is it for someone to do research/look up information they don't know? What is the primary method of doing this?

What holidays do they have? Any weird traditions? Fun traditions? Are they universally celebrated, or only by specific groups of people?

How do they dispose of their dead? How do they honor their dead?

How much exchange is there between cultures? Do people of different groups intermingle, or do they mostly stick with their own people?

How common is it to speak more than one language, and who is most likely to be multilingual?

How much do regional dialects/accents vary within the same language? Are there any dialects/accents that are stigmatized? Do different accents have different associated stereotypes?

This isn't meant to be taken as a checklist that you have to completely fill out btw. Just things that might help add flavor to your world and characters. (Also mostly things I end up thinking about logistically anyway as they become relevant to the plot or a character's frame of reference.) Enjoy!

#writing #worldbuilding #fantasy #fantasy writing #writing tips #writing resources #writeblr

[bpdjennamaroney]

Will and Emma are having relationship problems because Will is not taking COVID seriously enough ("Therapy"). The next day Will takes his frustration out on the glee club and accuses them of not taking COVID seriously enough (Finn doesn't understand germ theory and Brittany is QAnon.)

Will says, "You guys lack historical perspective. Back in the 80s and 90s there was a young gay composer named Jonathan Larson who saw disease and suffering all around him. When he found out he was afflicted with AIDS, he put all of his pain into the timeless and unreproachable work of art, RENT. RENT taught us about community and caring for one another and more importantly...it taught us that musicals can rock." Will sings the title song from RENT with Artie and Finn.

That night: Santana is fed up with lockdown restrictions and sneaks out of her house to visit Brittany ("Out Tonight"). Brittany is planning a big show that will blow the whole COVID conspiracy wide open. She previews it for Santana ("Over the Moon"). Santana is freaked out and breaks up with Brittany. Santana can excuse ignoring disease prevention guidelines but she draws the line at being Republican about it.

Also that night, Will tries to sleep with Emma but she's too COVID-cautious ("Green Green Dress"). She says maybe they need some time apart because of their different priorities.

While grocery shopping, Will runs into Holly Holliday. Holly is lighting scented candles in the middle of the store but for some reason all of them are defective/unscented ("Light My Candle.") Holly propositions Will. Will says he's seeing Emma, and Holly admits she also has a boyfriend.

"I'm sure we can work something out," Holly says. "Meet me at the basement of the swinger's club at 9:00."

Will shows up at the swinger's club and spots his old rival, Brian Ryan (the Neil Patrick Harris character). They glare at each other, then confront each other and it's revealed that Brian is Holly's boyfriend ("Tango Maureen.") She knew Brian and Will were old high school rivals and set all this up because she's into the whole enemies-to-lovers thing.

Will scolds her. "That is so cruel and manipulative of you. I can't believe you would do this."

Holly tries to convince him to live life to the fullest. ("Another Day.")

Eventually Will thinks about what proud openly gay icon Jonathan larson would do, and he has a threesome with Holly and Brian ("Contact," I'm afraid.)

The morning after, Will can't believe he kind of cheated on Emma/hooked up with Brian and really enjoyed it ("Real Life").

On Monday, Brittany and Santana are still broken up but sitting on opposite sides of the choir room is emotionally difficult for them ("Without You.")

On the way home from school, Kurt and Blaine are like "Aren't you glad we're not like Brittany and Santana, breaking up every 5 seconds over something stupid?" and they sing "I'll Cover You" but then they break up over something stupid.

Will contemplates his sexual awakening, torn between Holly+Brian and Emma ("Johnny Can't Decide/Come To Your Senses" mashup).

The tension in glee club is unavoidable.

"Mr. Shu, this is ridiculous," Rachel says. "Ever since you brought up RENT and Jonathan Larson, it's been nonstop hookups and fighting. Also, Jonathan Larson wasn't gay and he didn't die of AIDS! He was straight and died of some random heart thing."

"What? Jonathan Larson wasn't gay? So my sexual experimentation was under false pretenses?"

Will immediately calls and breaks it off with Brian and they argue ("What You Own").

The next day Santana says "I can't believe we caused this much fuss over a straight man, who died of a random heart thing."

"Wait, just because he was straight doesn't make his words less powerful," Finn says.

"You're right," Will says. "Maybe I'm bisexual." ("Louder than Words.") And then they all sing La Vie Boheme.

At some point Santana and Mercedes sing "Take Me or Leave Me" as their glee club presentation. (It's a four-part episode.) Also I think Gwyneth would have fun with Today 4 U, don't kill me.



#glee #rent #jonathan larson

[phaeton-flier]

Guy who gets isekaied into ancient world, like prehistoric world, but she's just a guy and not an obsessive who memorized the steps to make sulfuric acid and gunpowder, she just studied some high-level programming shit because in modern society you don't need to know how to make the tools to make the tools (generalization, Heinlein, is for the r-strategists)

so all she can do is introduce farming and music and mathematics and handwashing and the abstract idea of animal husbandry and writing and not doing incest and human rights and the germ theory of disease. She's celebrated as the legendary First Empress and enters into mythology as Queen of Heaven and she spends the rest of her life sighing while surrounded by a harem, drowning her sorrows about not having stronger alcohol or weed.

[azfellandco]

Hi friend this ask is a request for you to wax lyrical about Crowley slowly dying of a poisonous dose of laudanum, because it seems That Scene is still on all our minds. <3

Godbless (they said agnostically). This is going to be a mess of a response because I have been working a lot of overtime and am pretty sleep deprived, and also because there are a lot of angles to this.

First off: you're so correct to point out that laudanum is an analgesic and not literally a poison, because I think this slots in so nicely with the pattern of stuff we see Aziraphale consume and why (food and wine, for sensual pleasure) and stuff we see Crowley consume and why (alcohol for numbing and six shots of espresso to brace himself, and now laudanum, a medical grade numbing agent, at a dosage that would have killed Elspeth had he not intervened).

To really get into this I'm going to have to talk a little about something I have a lot of approximate knowledge about: Victorian era medicine. Why I find poison sexy (maybe compelling is a better word here) is partially tied up in the Victorian era and this exact subset of knowledge, which I am going to disclaim right now as not very precise. I research stuff primarily to regurgitate it in fiction, and not for complete factual accuracy.

First off, let's take a moment to admire Crowley's prognosticative abilities once again.

Antiseptic is 25 years off, germ theory is held in disdain by the western world, but here's Anthony "that went down like a lead balloon" Crowley just trying to be helpful to this guy covered in blood.

Antiseptic was not in common medical and surgical use until the 1850s. It was pioneered by Joseph Lister, who actually worked at the University of Edinburgh, which was kind of the place to be in terms of medical breakthroughs of this time period. Before the advent of washing your hands and sterilizing surgical equipment, something like 2/3rds of surgical patients died either on the operating table or of infection afterwards. Medicine during this time period was difficult, dangerous work with a high risk of complications, and surgery was haunted by death and disease. Dr. Darymple would have administered laudanum to a patient and then strapped their limbs down and put something in their mouth so they didn't bite through their tongue before cutting into them, and even if he was a good surgeon they might have died a week later from gangrene or sepsis anyway.

It's in this world that laudanum and opium more generally got romanticized by literature and poetry. The Victorians loved opium, but the symbolism of the poppy, from which opium is derived, has been sleep and death since the classical world. My go-to example of the blending of these themes (poppies as sleep and death symbolism and this time period's interest in the classical world) is The Garden of Proserpine by Algernon Charles Swinburne, of which I will include an excerpt below:

No growth of moor or coppice,          No heather-flower or vine, But bloomless buds of poppies,          Green grapes of Proserpine, Pale beds of blowing rushes Where no leaf blooms or blushes Save this whereout she crushes          For dead men deadly wine.

The symbolic connection between opium (and thus laudanum) and sleep and death is my strongest association with either drug. The poppies = death association is used all the time even in the modern day. See this song, Flowers, from the musical Hadestown:

Lily white and poppy red I trembled when he laid me out "You won't feel a thing," he said, "When you go down" Nothing gonna wake you up now

Poppy symbolism is doing a lot of work in this song, actually, drawing a line between virginity and death, and the flower imagery standing in for both Euridyce's sexual relationship with Hades as well as her death but I disgress.

This is my personal context for laudanum and opium. I think it's encouraged to read the sleep and death connection into both of these medicines, both by the artistic tradition that arose contemporaneously with their use and by continued references back to it in the modern day. I am thinking of the scene in Inception where the opium den they visit is full of people who go to be drugged in order to dream their lives away as just one of many other modern day examples. Opium is sleep and sleep is death.

So while the laudanum is not literally poison, I think there is cultural context in which it is possible to read it as symbolically poison, regardless of whether Crowley's not-actually-human body should be able to withstand it. I think that it is compelling to read it as such, given the above-mentioned pattern of Crowley's habits of consumption.

I've seen a lot of posts about how the next time Aziraphale and Crowley see each other after this flashback is the time Crowley asks Aziraphale to bring him holy water and Aziraphale refuses on the grounds that he won't provide Crowley with a suicide pill. While I think this says more about Aziraphale than it does about Crowley (Crowley has never struck me, by behavior or attitude, to be the kind of person who would kill themself, whereas for Aziraphale one of the worst things that could happen would be losing Crowley) there is something there, something in that tartan thermos, something in the idea that Crowley would drink his death.

There is one more angle to this, and this is going to be a bit of a reach. I once read an analysis post in another fandom about the symbolism of poison as a choice of weapon. This line will haunt me until my grave: "a man stabs, a woman poisons". Just as a sword is a phallic symbol, poison (to me) is a feminine coded way to kill another person. For more context, please read The Laboratory by Robert Browning, a poem about a woman procuring a poison to kill her husband's lover, written by another Victorian poet. Crowley dying being discorporated by self-administered poison compels me for all the reasons mentioned above but also for gender reasons. Nonbinary icon.

Crowley dying being discorporated by self-administered poison feels like it is in conversation with two events that happen chronologically later but narratively earlier: the "suicide pill" conversation and Crowley trying to wait out the apocalypse in the bar after the bookshop burned. For all intents and purposes he seems to have given up at that point and only pulls himself together because Aziraphale appears to him and proves he isn't gone gone. It makes sense as an exploration of Aziraphale's anxieties (the suicide pill convo), and the extent to which they might be justified (Crowley drinking as the world ends). It's interesting it's compelling it's symbolically rich it's consistent with characterization choices in the show.

I think realistically Crowley would keep from Aziraphale that he was in pain until he physically couldn't do so, because it would threaten the wall they've had to erect to keep each other safe to do otherwise, but in a scenario where Crowley was hurt, properly hurt, Aziraphale would find a way to excuse them because he would not stand for Crowley suffering.

Just...

The idea of Aziraphale gathering Crowley close in the dark graveyard, feeling him stumble, Crowley who is so bright and brave and beautiful reduced to clutching to Aziraphale and the pair of them trying to will him back to health the way they can choose to sober up, and failing... Crowley because by this point he's too weak, he waited too long putting up a front for Aziraphale, Aziraphale because of conflicting magic or because he's too anxious, his own personal moment of the gun shaking in Crowley's hands during the bullet catch, where he knows what he has to do but he can't do it, can't trust himself not to make it worse.

And then Crowley's body going cold, Aziraphale holding it and crying because despite knowing it's just a body and that Crowley can get another one, he failed to protect him. Crowley died for someone and Aziraphale couldn't prevent it. And the things they don't say to each other, all rushing in to fill the silence left by Crowley's stopped breath. Aziraphale whispering to him, kissing his temple, part of him wondering if he'd ever be able to do this if he wasn't already gone.

It would just be really good, okay. It would be really good.

#the resurrectionist #good omens #meta #i stayed up way too late to write this and now i am going to sleep #tw suicide #tw death

[stealingyourbones]

Ever heard the theory that time travel into the past could cause the next big plague because of the diseases you carry? Or if you go into the future the evolved diseases of that time would effect YOU?

Well, Danny doesn’t have to worry about that cause he’s dead. As we all know, ghosts really don’t get sick. This fact is really useful when Clockwork sends him on missions all across the Realms. To different times, universes, even dimensions! Being Clockwork’s apprentice was a never ending mission, but he had fun.

He thought this time would be no different.

Clockwork asks him to go to the past of a certain dimension to save the life of a child or something. He’s not really sure. He does know that the mission is hard and complicated, and by the end of it, he’s so exhausted he can barely open a portal to the present of the current dimension. No WAY can he make it home in this state.

So he wanders around, looking for a place to curl up and rest, unknowingly spreading his little ghost germs and causing a new, and very strange, epidemic.

The residents of the DC universe are afflicted with Ecto-Acne.

oh what a fascinating premise! i'm pretty sure DC has dealt with extra dimensional illnesses before so they have plans in place but the absolute chaos scrambling to quarantine everyone with Ecto-Acne would be an absolute shitshow.

#bones replies #dpxdc

[heepthecheep]

There is so much medical misinformation on Tumblr that people take at face value and it's kind of fascinating but also really fucking bad

Off the top of my head?

- drugs; prescription, OTC or recreational can absolutely have an effect on your health. Dosages aren't suggestions and neither is stuff like "don't take with alcohol" or "don't operate heavy machinery"

-in addition to the last point, addiction is real and not something made up by your parents to keep you from doing weed in highschool. It can take different forms

- don't take other people's prescriptions. Again, with the dosage thing, expiration dates, and especially not antibiotics

-speaking of which, antibiotic resistant infections (ie. MRSA, ERSA) are caused by not finishing your prescription of antibiotics or taking antibiotics inappropriately (ie. When you have a viral infection) (and there are other issues too but these are probably the main ones that are most relevant to a layman) and are not caused by "antivaxxers" (seriously, I've seen this argument applied to the covid vaccine. A vaccine for a virus that no doctor would treat with antibiotics- not the mention that MRSA is literally referring to Staph Aureus)

-just because a disease is uncommon or "extinct" in your part of the world doesn't actually mean it is. Pathogens have animal and environmental reservoirs. Similarly, diseases that have been eradicated in your well developed and wealthy part of the world still kill people in places that aren't as wealthy and/or developed. The only diseases that are actually extinct are Smallpox and Rinderpest- and no, the parents who think vaccines cause autism aren't going to cause them to come back

-your weight, diet and lifestyle ABSOLUTELY affect your health.

-people on Tumblr seem to have some weird vendetta against doctors ordering blood work, but it's an absolutely valid and important screening and/or diagnostic test, and is helpful in monitoring many conditions

-Puberty, pregnancy and aging are natural processes that are not inherently harmful. Furthermore, people on Tumblr act as if pregnancy is the most dangerous thing in the world...while blaming the process itself and not the shitty, abusive and corrupt obstetrics community (or they point to history (and focus entirely on Europe) and act like issue is the process and not the ignorance towards germ theory, lack of or misunderstanding of hygiene, not understanding how women work, etc)

-hormones control a lot in your body and aren't just your sex hormones. They exist before you're even born and continue to exist after puberty ends.

[yuri-is-online]

A Pocket Full of Posies and WTF is up with Rollo's Hankie

Before we begin, a slight disclaimer: yes, Medieval beliefs about disease and how it spread were weird. They did not have the ability to know about germs because those are literally microscopic and germ theory would not be "discovered" until the 1860s. THIS DID NOT MEAN THEY WERE STUPID AND IF I SEE YOU SAYING THAT WE WILL FIGHT. Anyway-

If you have been kicking around on the internet for a bit, chances are you might have heard the "dark history" fact that that the "Ring Around the Rosey" nursery rhyme is about the Black Plague. That's probably not true but the reason it was originally theorized to be the case has to do with Miasma theory, and the use of strong scents (typically herbs and flowers) to ward off the "bad air." What does this have to do with Rollo huffing that handkerchief every time someone talks about magic? Well we'll get there but first just what the hell do I mean by bad air?

Miasma Theory in Practice

The Black Death/Bubonic Plague was a roving pandemic that gets it's name from the first wave that bitch slapped Europe from 1347-1351. There were technically three forms of plague kicking around by I am not a scientist and we are here to talk about that. Given that this was, as stated in the disclaimer, pre-germ theory the ideas people had about why this was happening and how to prevent it wildly varied, but Miasma Theory was so popular it actually stuck around long enough to duke it out with Germ Theory when scientists started talking about that.

The basic idea is that diseases like the Black Death were spread from bad smelling air. This theory was proposed by Hippocrates, as in that guy from third or fourth century Greece we aren't even sure existed, but it was a pretty universal belief, we have sources from Ancient China that also reference the idea that bad smells can make you sick. This "bad air" was thought to come from decay; in the case of the plague, dead bodies were believed to have released it (hence all the "bring out your dead" stuff), as were cracks in the earth, and sewage. ALL AIR WAS THOUGHT TO HAVE A LEVEL OF MIASMA, but smell was the best way to tell if you were in danger of getting sick; basically if it smells like shit out then you are in danger because there is only so much of it you can breathe in before you get sick. So when you end 1351 with 40% (that we can confirm!) of the population dead, how exactly do you keep yourself from huffing in all that invisible miasma?

Roi du Mouchoir

Well you make the air you breathe smell nicer of course! And this is where we get to Rollo's hankie.

The "posies" in that nursery rhyme doesn't actually refer to one specific flower. It's a type of small bouquet, which apparently are also called nosegays or tussie-mussies? It's also the technical term for those tiny groups of flowers that make up a corsage. The idea was that people would carry around things that smelled good, like flowers and herbs, and any time you smelled something bad you would bring the flower out of your pocket and hold it up to your nose just like Rollo does with his handkerchief. Literally, people usually kept those nice smelling flowers in "Plague Bags," which could refer to nicely sewn sachets or just neatly wrapped up in cloth. Eventually these got super fancy, and evolved into these really elaborate pouches people put potpourri in, but given how strict Rollo seems to be with himself (and everyone else) I've chosen in my own fan fic to interpret his posies as being the common kind, which would be rosemary and lavender. Today they are thought of as being soothing scents that calm you down, and that does seem to be what he is trying to do with all those deep breaths.

I got a lot of this specific information from this article here which is on a wonderful website curated by a professional perfumer I highly recommend poking around if you are interested in learning more.

Cool Story But?

"Sure Yuri, all of that is neat but isn't Rollo's handkerchief a reference to Esmeralda's scarf?" Yeah probably. I don't really think it has to be that deep, but I do think this stuff is cool and well-

Malleus's name is likely a reference to the Malleus Malificarum, a book I have a PDF of on my computer because of course I do that was published around the same time that this theory of disease would have been kicking around. It's about- well the author says it's about "witchcraft" but that's another paper for another time, and why they are super evil and bad and should all die. Specifically why they should all be burned at the stake, it's a fun read. And sounding oddly familiar to certain events...

That's all to say, sure it probably isn't that deep but with all the other really well researched and designed character choices, I would not be surprised if it was.

Semi Unrelated Fun Facts:

Bridal Bouquets are thought to have started, in part, as a way to ward off Miasma and keep the bride healthy on her wedding day.

Miasma theory was still super popular in the Victorian Era and lead to a lot of public clean up projects as people thought that they could get rid of disease if they got rid of all the sewage everywhere. And hey they were right, just not for the reason they thought they were.

Yes a lot of people thought the Black Plague was a punishment from God and a sign of the end times. I will remind you that 40-60% of Europe's population DIED IN FOUR YEARS. I'd assume something supernatural was out to get me too tf? Seriously these people were not stupid, they just lived in interesting times.

If you are wondering "hey I heard Plague Doctors stuffed herbs in the long beaks on their masks, is this why?" Yeah it is! Gold star!

I love you for making this far, thank you for listening to me friend and I hope to get back to entertaining you soon (っ˘з(˘⌣˘ ) ♡

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #glorious masquerade #glomas #rollo flamm #twst theories #the malleus malificarum is a *wild* book #did you know it was banned by the church when it was published! #i am very normal and definitely don't own an encyclopedia on demonology and witchcraft #and it is absolutely not within my line of sight as i write this

[cephalon-sancti]

I wanna pick someone's brain at Arkane for how they chose to make the Dunwall setting in the specific time frame it's in

Specifically that it's late Victorian to early Edwardian, but they're starting to run electricity (powered by supernatural whale oil), and they very specifically and explicitly do not have anything approaching germ theory.

Clearly they have some idea that inhaling fumes is bad (see: Whalers), but I can't find any hint that they would have miasma theory either. What DO they think causes disease? In game several people are investigating the cause of the rat plague but the closest they've gotten to a causative agent is "rat parts???" like not even the droppings or fluids of a rat, just "rat."

I know that is supposed to resemble the bubonic plague, but there's no mention of fleas on the rats we can find being studied. If the plague is closer to my personal guess that it's some sort of turbo hantavirus, then Sokolov has no chance of figuring it out if he doesn't know that germs are a thing.

Did the Abbey of the Everyman decide that germ theory was heresy or something and that's why they don't have it?

#dishonored #i love epidemiology ok #I also want to know why they decided that women all get to wear pants #i love me some pants but I want to know WHY

[cryptotheism]

Do you have any research recs for the intersection of occultism and disease treatment? I just read this fascinating book on the cultural history of rabies, which among other things, discussed the disease through the lens of religion and lycanthropy/werewolf myths. I guess, your last post described alchemy in regards to atomic theory, and I’m wondering if there’s an equivalent for germ theory

You are asking for Paracelsus lmao. Read Paracelsus. He's like, The Guy for that.

[whencyclopedia]

Germ Theory

The Germ Theory, which emerged in the late 19th century, demonstrated that microscopic germs caused most human infectious diseases. The germs involved included bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, and prions. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), a French chemist and microbiologist, and Robert Koch (1843-1910), a German physician and microbiologist, are credited with the discovery of the germ theory in the 1860s-1880s.

Regarded as the most important discovery in the history of medicine, the germ theory challenged the medical profession to reevaluate how disease was thought about, offered possibilities for both the prevention and treatment of disease, as well as the discovery and implementation of new technologies to combat disease.

Previously, doctors assumed that disease was an internal process of the human body especially Hippocrates' long-standing four humors theory notion that excesses or deficiencies of four bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow and black biles) led to illness and disease. The germ theory contradicted that idea by separating the disease from the afflicted persons. Furthermore, the new theory ushered in a regimented way of classifying diseases (nosology) according to the type of microorganisms causing the disease.

Historical Theories of Disease

Prior to the discovery of the germ theory, various theories were advanced as possible explanations for illness and disease in humans. The earliest theory was the miasma theory attributed to Hippocrates (460-370 BCE), a Greek physician. Derived from the Greek word meaning pollution or "bad air", the miasma theory suggested that decomposing particles from organic materials, plants or animals, poisoned the air. Although easily detected by smell, people who inhaled the "bad air" would become ill. Additionally, planetary movements, disturbances to the Earth, poor hygiene, and polluted water often contributed to miasma. Attempts to remove waste along with cleanliness were thought necessary to improve the atmosphere to avoid infection and disease.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE), a Greek philosopher, offered the spontaneous generation of disease. It was possible, Aristotle thought, for living organisms to spring from non-living matter. Furthermore, this process, like maggots appearing from dead flesh, was a regular and natural phenomenon.

Galen (129-216 CE), a Roman physician, extended Hippocrates' earlier speculation about the imbalance of bodily fluids as the cause of disease. Galen attached each of the four humors to a particular season characterized by hot, cold, dry, and wet. For example, colds and flues occurred most often during cold and wet weather. Any change in the weather or season could upset the balance of the four humors so treatments were devised to restore said balance e.g., purges, bloodletting, enemas, and vomits. These ancient theories dominated Western medical thinking about illness until the 19th century.

Another theory of the origin of diseases referred to supernatural causes. A person's sins resulted in contracting a disease or illness as a punishment from the gods or God. Ghosts, demons, and evil spirits also possessed the ability to afflict a person with illness. Magic, divination, spells, exorcism, and various drugs were used to diagnose and treat illness. It fell to a variety of healers – shamans, priests, diviners, medicine men – to drive away the evil spirits. Illness as a punishment for sins, as well as a test of faith, was later offered by Christian theologians as an explanation for disease.

Additional theories on the origin of diseases continued to emerge. Girolamo Fracastoro (1476-1553), an Italian physician, is credited with first using the word "contagion" when describing the transmission of illness. His "seeds of disease" theory argued that disease could be spread by direct or indirect contact or over long distances through no contact at all. A German chemist, Justus von Liebig (1803-1873), one of the early founders of organic chemistry, suggested that as a result of a chemical process from decaying organic matter, disease simply emerged in the blood (the body's "chemical factory").

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#History #GermTheory #LouisPasteur #Medicine #WHE #[ #]

[createserenity]

So I don't really know where I'm going with this but I've been thinking recently that Crowley doesn't appear to perceive time like the rest of us. Is it really happening in a linear fashion for him? Does he really move from past to present to future or can he choose not to? Is he only moving in that direction most of the time because he's in a corporeal form and he needs to percevie the world like that most of the time in order not to go mad? Could he live outside time altogether if he chose to? Or is he experiencing time normally the way humans do but can also see the future? And if he can see the future is it in a controlled way, or does he get random glimpses when he doesn't expect it? Does he see possible futures but not know which one will come to pass?

(Side note - Aziraphale doesn't seem to have this ability, but perhaps he just doesn't use it - maybe all angels can live outside time if they wish to).

There's a bit of evidence that he doesn't experience time in a normal human fashion For a start he can stop time - that's very big and obvious so doesn't really need much discussion, apart from maybe to speculate over the place he takes Adam and Aziraphale when he does so before Satan's arrival. Is that an angelic realm outside time? Aziraphale certainly seems to relish how he feels when he's there, he looks satisfied, rolls his neck as if unwinding a tension and generally behaves in a way that suggests the place is relaxing and familiar to him.

There's also all the times that Crowley seems to know about things before humans invent them. I can buy that he could invent dark glasses - necessity is the mother of invention and all that, but helicopters? Why invent them? And how? Is he really some super amazing inventor or does he just know about them? If the latter then how? I suppose it could be argued that they are invented in heaven and then fed to the humans via angelic interference, but in that case why is it Crowley who knows and talks to Leonardo about helicopters? Also why would heaven invent them? It can't be hell, it's canonically established that they don't have imagination, which is needed to invent. So either Crowley is the inventor, or he knows what's coming for humanity because he can perceive the future in some way.

Same goes for handwashing. In S2E3 he tells the doctor about handwashing before it's a known medical practise and he also tells him that it will be all the rage in a few years. This takes place not long before humans discover its a good idea. It's a good joke, but again, how does he know that it will be all the rage in a few years? That's very specific. How does he know that very soon humans, who have failed to place significance on handwashing for millenia, will suddenly decide it's a good idea? You can argue that since he knows how earth was constructed he knows about germs and knows they are causing diseases and that hand washing will help, but its a bit of stretch in my view and also doesn't explain how he can be aware of the human timeline of this knowledge. Also why only mention this to someone now? And if he knows, Aziraphale knows, and you'd think Aziraphale would think to mention it to someone human much earlier if he was aware of it since it would alleviate human suffering.

I don't really know where I'm going with this to be honest or what it might mean (or even if I really think it's a thing at all if I'm honest) There's just a lot of theories around time and season two playing with the timeline and this weird stuff around Crowley and his perception of time might fit into it somewhere. Also Neil's future apocolyptic scene that he wanted to put in makes me very suspicious. Why would that fit in with what we see? Who would be seeing that future? I can't find the recount of what he said now, but I seem to remember he mentioned that the audience wouldn't know if it was a dream or vision. So is it one of Crowley's glimpses forward in time? If it is does it explain why he's so dead set on running away at the end?

I've seen a future where you go to heaven, angel, and it doesn't end well.

#good omens 2 #ineffable fandom #crowley and his weird timey-wimey thingsmeta #good omens meta #good omens analysis #good omens #crowley