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Background: In the decades following the discovery of the bacillus causing typhoid, in 1880, understanding of the disease formerly known as enteric fever was transformed, offering new possibilities for prevention. Gradually, measures that aimed to prevent infection from human carriers were developed, as were inoculations designed to confer immunity against typhoid and paratyphoid fevers. These were initially introduced in European armies that were regularly ravaged by typhoid, especially garrisons stationed in the colonies. This article reviews the research undertaken in the armed forces and the measures that they implemented in the years up to and during the First World War., Methods: The article is based on an analytical review of scientific literature from the early 19th century, focusing on the United Kingdom, Germany, and France., Results: The armies of the United Kingdom, Germany, and France undertook important work on the transmission of typhoid in the years between 1890 and 1918. Many preventive measures were introduced to deal with the spread of typhoid but these varied between the 3 countries, depending largely on their political traditions. Inoculation was particularly successful in preventing typhoid and greatly reduced the number of casualties from this disease during the First World War. Despite this, it proved difficult to prevent paratyphoid infection, and debates continued over which vaccines to use and whether or not immunization should be voluntary., Conclusions: By the end of the First World War, the value of inoculation in preventing the spread of typhoid had been proven. Its successful implementation demonstrates the importance of vaccination as a public health intervention during times of conflict and social upheaval., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.)

The French law of 1822 created a homogeneous maritime health police all along the French coastline. Noteworthy in many respects, it was however very binding since it included some penalties of an extraordinary harshness as hard labour or even death. It was first disputed by those against the theory of contagion and the maritime and commercial circles, but subsequently it became overtaken by scientific knowledge despite numerous facilities and some important remodelling decrees were decided, one of them in 1876 just before the Pasteur revolution and another in 1896. The aim was then not only to prevent, epidemics (plague, cholera, yellow fever) crossing the borders of the national country, but also to prevent them from spreading out of their original cradles. Later it was the beginning of the sanitary international cooperation with the training of special eastern practitioners who could take sanitary precautions close to the sources of infection.

Since its origin in the 19th century, epidemiology has faced an internal tension between an approach oriented toward biology and the study of mechanisms, and an approach oriented toward populations and their interactions with the environment. Initially, this tension took the form of an opposition between microbiology and statistics. We describe the early roots of the quantitative approach to health and disease and several historical examples of the above tension. The search for the causes of pellagra exemplifies our thesis. In Italy, where pellagra was endemic, contrasting opinions coexisted between the hypothesis of contaminated maize, supported by Cesare Lombroso, and the hypothesis of a prevailing role of poverty and poor nutrition. In the United States, Joseph Goldberger found no evidence for the hypothesis of contaminated maize or for a microbiological agent, but recognized the central role of nutrition. The "cure" Goldberger proposed was land reform, but he continued studying the disease from a mechanistic point of view; shortly after his death, niacin deficiency was identified as the cause of pellagra. The tension between mechanistic and population-based studies is still present within epidemiology and is in fact essential for the success of the discipline.

This article examines the legal responses to infectious tuberculosis in England and France. Given that tuberculosis has re-emerged as a public health threat in both countries, the differing jurisprudence and legal frameworks of disease control in the two jurisdictions warrant examination. Two questions arise in that respect: firstly, what is the role of the State in the protection of public health in the context of tuberculosis, and secondly, to what extent can the law intervene to coerce individuals to undertake health measures for the protection of society at large. These issues reveal the tensions that exist between the individual and public interest. France and England differ greatly in their responses to such tensions. Paradoxically, France, that has traditionally embraced strong State intervention, has been reluctant to curtail individual freedoms for the benefit of public health. Conversely, England, that has tended to be more closely associated with liberalism, has been ready to accept and even promote restrictions to individual freedoms in the collective interest.

This paper compares anti-hookworm campaigns conducted in the early twentieth century in France, Germany, Brazil and West India. The populations that suffer from hookworm are not identical in the North and in the South. In tropical and semi-tropical regions hookworm is mainly found among poor peasants and is related to lack of hygiene, while in temperate climates hookworm was a professional disease of miners, a highly organized professional segment. Nevertheless, major disparities in the pattern of hookworm control did not reflect the North-South divide, but a difference between campaigns. These aimed at the eradication of hookworm infection (Germany and West-India) and at alleviating the effects of this infection on populations (France and Brazil). Maps that represented the prevalence of hookworm mirrored the aims of the sanitary campaign in which they were used: eradication of parasitic worms versus the reduction of the handicap induced by these worms. In public health as well, representing is intervening. And vice versa: patterns of intervention shape representations.

During the 20's, La Vie saine, popular journal of the Comite national de defense contre la tuberculose (France), campaigned against quackery. In this purpose, the journal tried to educate people and denounce quackers.

From 1817 to 1896, the whole world was scared to death, not once but five times, by pandemic cholera. In 1849, when France is affected by the first wave of the third pandemic, Joseph, Desire Tholozan is professor Michel Levy's clinical assistant, at the Val-de-Grace hospital. From this period, Tholozan, an editor of la Gazette medicale de Paris, applies himself to specify its pathology and especially its epidemiology. He pays particularly attention to get accurate statistics and he is on cholera's tracks, as well in French towns as during Crimean' war. From 1858, as the Persian Shah's physician, he sets up a real medical department in his adopted country. Pragmatic as he is, he recommends to encourage general public health, advocates pilgrimage controls or even pilgrimage suppressions, sometimes. He always remains very doubtful towards measures imposed by International health conferences as the Constantinople's one, in 1866. And if there is any quarantine required, it must be started by natives and not by occidental physicians unaware of language and customs. His definite positions will make him disclaimed by the Shah: he is obliged to resign six months before he would die.

In 1881, the Saint-Denis hospital equipped itself with a real infectious diseases department which was conceived in respect to the rules of hygiene, cleanliness and prophylaxis. On the one hand, this department had an isolation purpose for the people who suffered from epidemic infections favoured by the environment. On the other hand, it was realized to deal with the common infectious diseases known at this time. The analysis of these diseases shows that the first anti-rabic vaccination attempt by Pasteur carried out at the Saint-Denis Hospital.