Yellow fever, malaria, tetanus 鈥 in the West Indies and Africa, disease often felled more soldiers of the 18th century British Empire than battle. Without the benefit of germ theory, British doctors explained place-specific illness by the theory of 鈥渟easoning鈥 (what later became known as acclimatization). As historian Suman Seth explains in his new book, 鈥淒ifference and Disease: Medicine, Race, and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire,鈥 those who survived were believed to be 鈥渟easoned to the climate鈥 and no longer as vulnerable to disease.
The dangers of disease for those 鈥渦nseasoned鈥 to a place were well known, according to Seth, especially after catastrophic losses at Cartagena in the 1740s, where a third of British soldiers died within three weeks, virtually all because of disease. The Spanish won almost by default.
鈥淪ome of the soldiers assigned to the West Indies in the middle of the 18th century simply deserted,鈥 said Seth, professor of science and technology studies in the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频. 鈥淭hey knew that death rates were incredibly high.鈥
Since people believed that the more different a place was from the places to which they were accustomed, the sicker it could make you, seasoning became a way of mapping how dangerous people thought a place was. This medical reading illuminates how the British understood their empire. It also explains why the British framed the northern American colonies as a 鈥渘ew Britain,鈥 where those habituated to Britain wouldn鈥檛 suffer the kinds of diseases rampant in other parts of the empire.
A debate raged at the time over how much local knowledge rather than elite medical training mattered in the treatment of these seasoning diseases. If, as we believe in the 21st century, yellow fever in Africa is the same disease as yellow fever in India, then the best doctor will be the one trained at the best school regardless of where it is. But if diseases are specific to location, then the best doctor is the one with local experience and knowledge. As an example of how intense this debate was, Seth opens the book with the story of two doctors who killed each other over the argument.
The last third of 鈥淒ifference and Disease鈥 addresses race. 鈥淚n the seasoning theory, if one population has more immunity, it鈥檚 not because their bodies have some intrinsic difference but because they鈥檙e seasoned to a place by being born there,鈥 said Seth. 鈥淚n principle, anyone can become seasoned to a climate, and anyone can lose their seasoning by leaving for long enough. It was believed that slaves in the West Indies got more of certain diseases than white people because of worse food and accommodations, as well as their treatment.鈥
But in the mid-18th century, writes Seth, race became a cause of illness (or susceptibilities to illness), rather than an effect of climate, diet and other environmental factors. The book鈥檚 final chapter addresses the rise of what he calls 鈥渞ace medicine,鈥 at about the same time that 鈥渞ace science鈥 emerges.
Race science seems to be at least partly a reaction to abolitionists, said Seth, and their humanitarian critiques. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a facile argument that race was invented to justify slavery, but that makes no sense at all because you had slavery for centuries and it wasn鈥檛 racialized.鈥 But with the abolitionists鈥 savage critiques of slavery, said Seth, opponents responded that while it鈥檚 wrong and un-Christian to enslave other humans, 鈥淭hey said, 鈥榠t鈥檚 actually okay because these people are not in fact as human as we are. That whole 鈥業 need to be my brother鈥檚 keeper鈥 thing doesn鈥檛 have to apply if this person isn鈥檛 my brother.鈥欌 In the Enlightenment, science became a source of authority to cast nonwhites as lesser than human and race, rather than seasoning, as the cause of susceptibilities to disease.
Seth鈥檚 next project is a book that examines medicine and race from Hippocrates to the present.
Linda B. Glaser is a staff writer for the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频.
More News from A&S
Government
Social sciences
