Medical Progress and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918

摘要

The influenza outbreak of 1918 spread around the world and left millions of people dead. This pandemic was both a crisis for human life and a crisis for medical professionals attempting to combat the disease. During a period when medicine had become thoroughly professionalized and had made numerous advances in medical treatment, medical professionals perceived their field to be rapidly and consistently progressing, and many believed that there was little medicine could not overcome. Success against such diseases as yellow fever fed the idea that science and rational thought could conquer society's ills drove medical professionals' efforts. However, these modern ideas of progress, perfectibility, and medicine's pending triumph over disease adversely affected the medical profession's ability to deal effectively with the influenza pandemic of 1918. Physicians' efforts had not prevented a serious outbreak, and once it had exploded, they could not control it. Looking specifically at the British medical profession's struggle with the pandemic, as it coursed through both Britain and Britain's armies abroad, this paper examines physicians' own writings and investigates both their initial confidence in the face of disease and their disappointment, fear, and lack of clear direction as the pandemic exploded. In the aftermath of the pandemic, their confusion, dearth of understanding, and pressure to fill the void in knowledge are evident. This paper, then, discusses how confidence affected their mindset when they confronted the pandemic, and how the pandemic, in turn, affected their concept of progress, the ability of medicine, and their duty thereafter.