Human health on the pages of the “Veterinary Review”

Abstract

The aim of the following article is to present the health of the population in the second half of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century based on the „Veterinary Review" – the first Polish journal on veterinary science founded in 1886 in Lvov. The journal provides a lot of information on the life of man in the Polish territories during the partitions, but also in other, also non-European, countries. Except for the features on the diseases, which then affected millions of human beings, the "Review" remains a valuable source of information on the most recent – not necessarily conventional – methods of treatment (sometimes applied to this day). The article also illustrates the threats of poor hygiene, which affected human health directly or indirectly. It further discusses the issue of food economy and the state policy aimed at health protection to highlight the huge contribution of veterinary science to the improvement of health of the contemporary societies.