
Great Epizootic of 1872
Stuff You Missed in History Class
00:00
The Great Epizootic of 1872
This chapter examines the 1872 outbreak affecting horses in North America, offering insights into historical medical responses and care recommendations similar to modern flu treatments. It also highlights the chaos of dubious patent medicines, the confusion surrounding the disease's nature, and the broader implications for animal health and evolving disease understanding in the context of nascent germ theory.
Transcript
Play full episode
Transcript
Episode notes
The epizootic of 1872 was a massive outbreak of a flulike illness primarily among horses in North America, Central America, and some islands in the Caribbean.
Research:
- "WHEN A FLU REINED IN NEW YORK." States News Service, 28 Apr. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A622209555/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=2bf7de71. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
- Andrews, Thomas G. “Influenza’s Progress: The Great Epizootic Flu of 1872-73 in the North American West.” Utah Historical Quarterly. Vol. 89. No. 1.
- Andrews, Thomas G. “The Great Horse Flu of 1872-1873.” The Bill Lane Center for the American West. Stanford University. https://west.stanford.edu/events/great-horse-flu-1872-1873
- Andrews, Thomas. “The Great Horse Flu of 1872-1873.” Bill Lane Center for the American West Stanford Department of History. 5/4/2023. https://west.stanford.edu/events/great-horse-flu-1872-1873
- Bierer, Bert W. “History of Animal Plagues of North America.” USDA. 1939. https://archive.org/details/CAT75660671/page/22/mode/1up
- Department of Health, the City of New York. “Report on the Epizootic Influenza Among Horses in 1872-73.” https://archive.org/details/reportdepartmen05unkngoog/page/n259/mode/1up
- Durkin, Kevin. “The Great Epizootic of 1872.” Reprinted from SustainLife: uarterly Journal of the Ploughshare Institute for Sustainable Culture. Fall 2012. https://www.heritagebarns.com/the-great-epizootic-of-1872
- Freeberg, Ernest. “The Horse Flu Epidemic That Brought 19th-Century America to a Stop.” Smithsonian. 12/4/2020. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-horse-flu-epidemic-brought-19th-century-america-stop-180976453/
- Judson, A B. “History and Course of the Epizoötic among Horses upon the North American Continent in 1872-73.” Public health papers and reports vol. 1 (1873): 88-109.
- Judson, A.B. “Report on the Origin and Progress of the Epizootic among Horses in 1872, With a Table of Mortality in New York (Illustrated with Maps). The Veterinarian : a monthly journal of veterinary science. Volume 47 (Vol. 20 of Fourth Series), January - December 1874. https://archive.org/details/s2023id1378227/page/492/mode/1up
- Kelly, John. "Why the long face? Because in 1872, nearly every horse in Washington got very ill." Washingtonpost.com, 5 Nov. 2016. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A468927553/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=26db57c2. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
- Kheraj, Sean. “The Great Epizootic of 1872-73.” NiCHE. https://niche-canada.org/2018/05/03/the-great-epizootic-of-1872-73/
- Kheraj, Sean. “The Great Epizootic of 1872–73: Networks of Animal Disease in North American Urban Environments.” Environmental History, July 2018, Vol. 23, No. 3 (July 2018). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/48554105
- Law, James. “Influenza in Horses.” Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1872. 1874. https://archive.org/details/reportofcommissi1872unit/page/203/mode/1up
- Lazarus, Oliver. “The Great Epizootic of 1872: Pandemics, Animals, and Modernity in 19th-Century New York City.” The Gotham Center for New York City History. 2/25/2021. https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/the-great-epizootic-of-1872
- Liautard, A.F. “Report on the Epizootic, as it Appeared in New York.” Report of the Department of Health, the City of New York. https://archive.org/details/reportdepartmen05unkngoog/page/n295/mode/1up
- McCloskey, Patrick J. “The Great Boston Fire & Epizootic of 1872.” Dakota Digital Review. 12/3/2020. https://dda.ndus.edu/ddreview/the-great-boston-fire-epizootic-of-1872/
- McClure, James P. “The Epizootic of 1872: Horses and Disease in a Nation in Motion.” New York History , JANUARY 1998, Vol. 79, No. 1 (JANUARY 1998). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23182287
- McShane, Clay. “Gelded Age Boston.” The New England Quarterly , Jun., 2001, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Jun., 2001). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3185479
- Morens and Taubenberger (2010) An avian outbreak associated with panzootic equine influenza in 1872: an early example of highly pathogenic avian influenza? Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 4(6), 373–377.
- Powell, James. “The Great Epizootic.” The Historical Society of Ottawa. https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/publications/ottawa-stories/momentous-events-in-the-city-s-life/the-great-epizootic
- Sack, Alexandra, et al. "Equine Influenza Virus--A Neglected, Reemergent Disease Threat." Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 25, no. 6, June 2019, pp. 1185+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2506.161846. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
- Stolte, Daniel. “UA Study on Flu Evolution May Change Textbooks, History Books.” University of Arizona. https://news.arizona.edu/news/ua-study-on-flu-evolution-may-change-textbooks-history-books
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The AI-powered Podcast Player
Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!