There is a longstanding debate over the origins of syphilis, in which arguments over how the disease arrived in Europe have historically been linked to racist and xenophobic ideologies as well as to scientific and historical research. Whatever its provenance, the major syphilis epidemic of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries spread in the train of war, alongside Charles VIII of France's armies. Syphilis was distinguished both by its catholicity, targeting kings as well as paupers, and its mode of transmission. The disease's evident contagiousness served both as grist for a religious interpretation, emphasizing asceticism and divine punishment, and as a major challenge to the humoral theory of disease.

Reading / Film assignment:
Brandt, No Magic Bullet
Film: The Story of Louis Pasteur

1. Introduction to the Course
2. Classical Views of Disease: Hippocrates, Galen, and Humoralism
3. Plague (I): Pestilence as Disease
4. Plague (II): Responses and Measures
5. Plague (III): Illustrations and Conclusions
6. Smallpox (I): 'The Speckled Monster'
7. Smallpox (II): Jenner, Vaccination, and Eradication
8. Nineteenth-Century Medicine: The Paris School of Medicine
9. Asiatic Cholera (I): Personal Reflections
10. Asiatic Cholera (II): Five Pandemics
11. The Sanitary Movement and the 'Filth Theory of Disease'
12. Syphilis: From the "Great Pox" to the Modern Version
13. Contagionism versus Anticontagionsim
14. The Germ Theory of Disease
15. Tropical Medicine as a Discipline
16. Malaria (I): The Case of Italy
17. Malaria (II): The Global Challenge
18. Tuberculosis (I): The Era of Consumption
19. Tuberculosis (II): After Robert Koch
20. Pandemic Influenza
21. The Tuskegee Experiment
22. AIDS (I)
23. AIDS (II)
24. Poliomyelitis: Problems of Eradication
25. SARS, Avian Inluenza, and Swine Flu: Lessons and Prospects
26. Final Q&A

This course consists of an international analysis of the impact of epidemic diseases on western society and culture from the bubonic plague to HIV/AIDS and the recent experience of SARS and swine flu. Leading themes include: infectious disease and its impact on society; the development of public health measures; the role of medical ethics; the genre of plague literature; the social reactions of mass hysteria and violence; the rise of the germ theory of disease; the development of tropical medicine; a comparison of the social, cultural, and historical impact of major infectious diseases; and the issue of emerging and re-emerging diseases.

Course Structure:
This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2010.