Summary
The advent of bacteriological methods in the later 19th century has been seen, on the examples of America and Germany, to have been followed by a new laboratory-based, contact-tracing method of investigating outbreaks of epidemic disease. In Britain, however, this new approach never took firm root, and practising epidemiologists continued to follow an observational and deductive tradition in field investigations, rejecting any primary dependence on bacteriological methods. Alongside this persistent observational practice, there emerged a new statistical approach, based in Pearsonian biometrics, which allied itself with experimental laboratory techniques to develop a more systematic, theoretical trajectory for explaining disease outbreaks in the years after World War 1.
Zusammenfassung
Mit dem Aufkommen bakteriologischer Methoden im späten 19. Jahrhundert wurde zum Beispiel in Amerika und Deutschland eine neue Methode zur Untersuchung epidemischer Erkrankungen eingeführt. Diese Methode beruhte auf Labordaten und kontrollierte das spezifische Umfeld. In Britannien fasste dieser neue Ansatz jedoch nie richtig Fuss. Praktizierende Epidemiologen verfolgten weiterhin die beobachtende und deduktive Tradition der Felduntersuchungen und lehnten jede Abhängigkeit von bakteriologischen Methoden ab. Seite an Seite mit dieser sich fortsetzenden Beobachtungspraxis entstand aber ein neuer statistischer Ansatz, der auf der Biometrie nach Paerson basierte und mit experimentellen Labortechniken verbunden war. Damit sollte ein systematischerer, theoretischer Ansatz entwickelt werden, der die Krankheitsausbrüche in den Jahren nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg erklärt.
Résumé
L'avènement de méthodes bactériologiques à la fin du 19e siècle a été suivi, comme le montre les exemples de l'Amérique et de l'Allemagne, par le développement d'une nouvelle méthode d'investigation des épidémies basée sur le laboratoire et le contrôle d'entourage. En Angleterre, cependant, cette nouvelle approche n'a jamais pris solidement racine, et les épidémiologistes de terrain continuèrent à suivre la tradition observationnelle et déductive dans leurs enquêtes, rejetant toute dépendance par rapport aux méthodes bactériologiques. Parallèlement à cette pratique observationnelle persistante, émergea une nouvelle approche statistique, basée sur la biométrique Pearsonienne, qui, s'alliant aux techniques de laboratoire expérimentales, va développer une approche théorique plus systématique pour l'explication des épidémies dans les années qui suivirent la première guerre mondiale.
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Hardy, A. Methods of outbreak investigation in the “Era of Bacteriology” 1880–1920. Soz Präventivmed 46, 355–360 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01321661
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01321661