Uncertainty and Emotion in the 1900 Sydney Plague

This Element analyses how emotion was provoked by uncertainty in medical knowledge during the third plague pandemic in Sydney.

Philippa Nicole Barr (Author)

9781009462105, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 April 2024

80 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.281 kg

'… contributes to our understanding of the role of emotion and the senses in infectious disease history, and Barr's arguments and points about the use of emotion in public health responses are intensely relevant today. This Element piece will appeal, therefore, not only to scholars interested in health history but also to those seeking to draw lessons from a broader range of disciplines to inform current approaches to public health.' Heather T. Battles, Medical History

When the third global plague pandemic reached Sydney in 1900, theories regarding the ecology and biology of disease transmission were transforming. Changing understandings led to conflicts over the appropriate response. Medical and government authorities employed symbols like dirt to address gaps in knowledge. They used these symbols strategically to compel emotional responses and to advocate for specific political and social interventions, authorising institutional actions to shape social identity and the city in preparation for Australia's 1901 Federation. Through theoretical and historical analysis, this Element argues that disgust and aversion were effectively mobilised to legitimise these actions. As an intervention in contemporary debates about the impact of knowledge on emotion and affect, it presents a case for the plasticity of emotions like disgust, and for how both emotion and affect can change with new medical information.

1. Introduction
2. Outbreak of plague at Sydney, 1900
3. The symbolism of dirt in discursive responses to plague
4. Development of a city
5. 'A maze of contradictory observations': medical eclecticism and changing understandings of disease causation
6. Transforming the atmosphere
7. Mediating affect
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]