A brief review on "Cristofano and the plague"

Considering the name of this blog it is obvious that the primary focus will be psychology related, however my reading/research is not always necessary psychology driven - and what I mean by that, is I do not limit my self to just psychological material. I find interests in many areas of knowledge which help me gain an insight into the world we live in; its history, its art, its music, its people... all of these things allow me to gain a realistic perspective of my own life. Now... what I have decided to do is create brief write ups on the books I read in the hopes of peaking someone else's interest and to maybe consult these books if they like what I have written. However my motives are not purely selfless, me writing these posts helps me to facilitate my own understanding of what I have read too, so in my eyes it is a win win :)

Right so now lets get on with my latest read...




I have just finished this book by Carlo M.Cipolla called "Cristofano and the plague - A study in the history of public health in the age of Galileo" besides its lengthy title, this book delivers a fascinating insight into life in the 16th century when Europe was stricken by the plague. Contrary to most books like this where it's narrated from the authors perspective or through an assumed anecdotal tale following a families venture through a disaster - this book instead focuses on archival data from the public health board who had to make all the decisions based on public safety. This definitely gives a factual and accurate feel to the book.

One slight issue I found was with the use of related terminology (words that were used as specific identifiers throughout the book) and how a clear definition of said words were not always apparent. Note that I do call this a "slight" issue because the book does come equipped with a variety of appendices and definitions to help the reader to fully understand what is happening (it can just be a little annoying always referring to the back of the book). Besides that this book is very well written and holds a great deal of interesting information, with full emphasis on the terrible conditions related to that time.  



Something that stood out to me was with the way the health board dealt with the plague, it's a given that their ideas were somewhat primitive and limited given the times, however they were definitely on the right tracks. They conjured up ideas such as quarantining those with the disease (even though they confined those infected, it was in terrible conditions most of the time - especially if you were of a low social class. people were often sentenced to a period in a dedicated building termed a "pest house" and along with its low quality of hygiene, equipment was always scarce i.e. bedding and clothes etc), burning contagious clothing, stopping shipments of marketed goods such as food, confining the town in order to stop people coming and going, and to thoroughly cleanse any area suspected of contagion. These strategies were good in theory and did indeed benefit them to an extent, but due to the origins of the plague hiding under the cover of anonymity and thriving of societies naivety, it was hard to conjure up strategies to stop it at the source (especially in the summer times when the percentage of deaths would drastically increase as a result of more fleas and rats).



Another thing that struck my curiosity was how many of the leaders assigned to the positions that involved power over medical staff were in fact naive to any sort of medical practice. It was not uncommon for a someone of power within the medical field to have no actual "in the field" experience. On the other hand this is understandable because of the lack of choice due to a decrease in population at the time. These sorts of positions were approached with much reluctance due to risk of contact with any infected. This cautious approach even saw many areas without active doctors which for obvious reasons is not very good, especially in a time of vital need. One quote I thought perfectly summed up the frustration of the time goes as follows: "One learns at the cost of human life what happens when one receives from God the scourge of an epidemic without having any light or experience wherewith to guide one's conduct in so exacting a task" . 

So...

This is my brief overview of what this book in-tells, there is much more to it than what I have illustrated. If you find yourself wanting to know more about a crucial time in our history then I highly recommend this book.

Thank you for reading :)      

My odd and random thoughts...

At times I get these random and obscure train of thoughts that are normally inspired via external events/surroundings that occur, and as of late I have been taking notes of them otherwise I tend to forget. Today's random thought process happened whilst driving home from work to which I witnessed a horse reacting (very fluently I might add) to a sheep which no doubt had made it jump... mistakenly I presumed. However what I found fascinating about this particular event was the speed it was able to move.

 Now from what I understand is that this high speed reaction would have been mastered through an evolutionary process to increase the chances of survival, and due to the large physical structure of a horse, it's large muscles can react alongside this evolutionary advantage to form explosive movements in a life threatening situation. Nonetheless the quick reflexes of a horse are not just merely horse specific, the same reactions can be observed in smaller mammals who contrary to that of a horse have much smaller physical frames but are more or less capable of moving with perfect fluidity in compromising situations -  thus concluding the clear influence of evolution. But what really struck me was why do humans not possess these physical attributes?

When you think about it humans are unable to physically perform in a way that can almost guarantee their safety in a life or death situation (when have you ever seen a dog trip over when running away?). There are so many variables to consider for humans; such as their body type, whether or not they are active, if medically they can react fast enough, and their mentality at the time (if they are angry, sad, scared, or stubborn can all promote different reactions) these are only some of many factors that could influence our performance.

I find it strange that we do not have these abilities because at one time our primitive ancestors had to defend and hunt for survival (just like every other creature) and from what I can guess we would have been pretty disadvantaged, especially before the growth of our mental capabilities. I also believe that in a way maybe we lacked this exceptionally fast neural conductivity because more was dedicated towards the development of our brains (which without we would not be the most dominant species in the food chain). So even without physical advantages such as speed we still survived and evolved successfully.


 Another angle could be that our need for such fast reactions has just gradually diminished and become some-what obsolete as a result of an increase of implemented security precautions within modern day society - I mean who needs to hunt when you can pick up the phone and get food delivered to your house? So laziness paired with today's practicality could equal a reduction in survival mechanisms.



Anyways these are the kind of things that I find myself questioning, I would be doing something, and BAM some random thought will come into my head. But now that I have chosen to reflect upon these thoughts through noting them down, hopefully not only will it motivate me to seek out answers to the questions but it can also act as an interesting addition that can be displayed through the use of this blog.


I find this type of thing helps promote originality over posts that are fundamentally regurgitated information (not that I find that bad as I like to discuss science related concepts), but evidently it is a nice change. Anyways that is enough of my random ramblings. I look forward to posting more and I wish you all well :)