Translation of Great Epidemics, by Émile Littré

Abstract

"Great epidemics", by Émile Littré, is an essay that approaches the history of epidemics and tries to lay the foundations for a pathological history of humankind, based on these great calamities. The text also advances in what Littré calls "less gross affections" and which refer to "nervous diseases", also considering them in their epidemic character, which opens a series of problems for defining what an epidemic really is. We present here a Portuguese version of this text, originally published in 1836, but that remains very up to date in some of its claims.