From occupational disease to social disease: the battle against malaria in Italy (original) (raw)

The aetiology of malaria, as is well known, remained unexplained until the end of the 19 th century. In marshy areas, fevers were a reality with which men had coexisted for centuries and the fatalistic spirit widespread in the farming world was also shared by the ruling classes. People were resigned to living with malaria, as happened with the more common colds and flu, for which cures were more or less non-existent (Corti 1984: 656-661; 667-673). Malaria was first and foremost believed to be a 'scourge of the land', i.e. that the marshes and ponds were the focuses of infection: a notable importance was attributed to the putrefaction of the waters and the exhalations that this generated and it was believed that the mixing of fresh and salt waters produced lethal emanations (Serpieri 1991: 296-97; for a concise overview of the numerous beliefs relating to the origin of the malaria infection cf. Camera dei Deputati 1903, Documenti, n. XXV: 50-57). The spread of the disease also undoubtedly depended on the miserable conditions in which the humble classes lived. Angelo Celli, Professor of Hygiene at the University of Rome, speaks of «predisposing social causes of malaria» referring to the unfavourable dietary, clothing and dwelling conditions of the peasants (Celli 1899: 8; on the figure of A. Celli cf. Cantana, De Martinis 1979: 433-437), which had been emphasized by the Inchiesta Agraria Jacini (Jacini Agricultural Investigation) and the successive Inchiesta sulle condizioni igieniche e sanitarie nei Comuni del Regno (Investigation on the hygienic and sanitary conditions in the municipalities of the Kingdom) (Direzione Generale della Statistica 1886). It would anyway be necessary to await the first years of the new century to witness the enactment of measures aimed expressly at improving the living conditions of those who worked on the land (Della Peruta: 713-759)