Authors
Matthew Romaniello1; 1 Weber State University, United States Discussion
In 1782, a catarrh pandemic overtook Western Europe and North America. Catarrh was a traditional “cold” disease, therefore it had to have originated from a cold country: the common assumption was that meant Siberia. In the eighteenth century, nosology argued for associating diseases with common symptoms. All of the diseases affecting the lungs must have had a similar cause, assumed to be cold and moist conditions. This paper will approach the catarrh pandemic from two perspectives – “inside” from the Russian Empire and “outside” from Europe, to understand not only the vector of transmission, which, to be fair, was from Tobol’sk, but also how influential the climate was on perceptions of Russia. 
