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  • Enfermedad y población: Introducción a los problemas y métodos de la epidemiologia histórica
  • José G. Rigau-Pérez
Josep Bernabeu Mestre. Enfermedad y población: Introducción a los problemas y métodos de la epidemiologia histórica. Scientia Veterum, no. 5. Valencia, Spain: Seminari d’Estudis sobre la Ciència, 1995. 127 pp. Tables, figures. Ptas. 1,300.00 (paperbound).

Enfermedad y población is an outstanding introduction to the problems and methods of historical epidemiology. The book has three sections: the concerns and methods of epidemiologic analysis and their application in historical investigations; the sources and techniques for historical studies of a population’s size or health; and important problems in historical epidemiology. Three problems are considered: the medical causes of illness and death; the relationship of demographic crises to epidemic infectious diseases; and the proposed explanations for the reduction of mortality and increase in chronic diseases in affluent nations (the “sanitary transition”).

The book has many virtues, foremost among which are the author’s firm grasp of epidemiologic concepts, and his ability to present them in concise, clear style. Dr. Bernabeu seems equally at ease with the historical and the epidemiologic literature. He appropriately reminds readers that the role of an epidemic disease in a demographic crisis is often only secondary to the conditions that have reduced the standard of living of that population (p. 77).

The text is short (93 pages) and does not attempt to give a detailed explanation of mathematical or statistical techniques, but it is accompanied by a five-page [End Page 560] glossary of epidemiologic terms, and an excellent seventeen-page bibliography that includes references in six different languages. A thematic index should have been included, to help beginners and specialists find their subjects of interest. Nevertheless, the book will be as useful to the historian who needs to become familiar with the investigation of health problems, as to the epidemiologist who wants to collect and analyze historical data.

José G. Rigau-Pérez
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
San Juan, Puerto Rico
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