When filth became dangerous: the miasmatic and contagionistic origins of nineteenth-century cleanliness practices among Swedish provincial doctors.

This investigation sheds light on the social history of pathogenic dirt and its significance for shaping medical practices during the nineteenth century. It consists of an analysis focusing on Swedish medicine, using 8800 yearly reports written 1820-1900 by Swedish provincial doctors for the National Board of Health in Stockholm. The main argument is that the provincial doctors' perceptions of the relationship between dirt and health during this century can be better understood by focusing on similarities in the handling of different kinds of pathological dirt over the course of many decades, rather than seeing interest in cleanliness as something mostly unprecedented.