Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Foreword by George W. Comstock
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 By What Name?
- 2 Origins
- 3 Marshall
- 4 Health of the People
- 5 Drink No Longer Water
- 6 Susan
- 7 Dread Diseases
- 8 Baltimore
- 9 Professor
- 10 Epidemiologist
- 11 Sunset and Evening Star
- Bibliography of Publications by Wade Hampton Frost
- Abbreviations of Scientific Journal Titles
- Notes
- Index
Foreword by George W. Comstock
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Foreword by George W. Comstock
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 By What Name?
- 2 Origins
- 3 Marshall
- 4 Health of the People
- 5 Drink No Longer Water
- 6 Susan
- 7 Dread Diseases
- 8 Baltimore
- 9 Professor
- 10 Epidemiologist
- 11 Sunset and Evening Star
- Bibliography of Publications by Wade Hampton Frost
- Abbreviations of Scientific Journal Titles
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Throughout my career in epidemiology, which has spanned much of the twentieth century, I often heard references to Wade Hampton Frost as the one who did the most to bring epidemiology into the ranks of scientific disciplines. And yet, when I recently looked through the medley of epidemiology textbooks in my library, I found his name mentioned in only about half of them, and then usually in connection with his paper on cohort analysis. There was one notable exception. John R. Paul, in his book, Clinical Epidemiology, said:
Frost did much to transform epidemiology in the United States from a loose discipline to an analytical and productive science. Frost’s work began with careful clinical observations, many of which were made as part of a series of field observations; this was followed up with population measurements. Then with orderly precision the data were subjected to biostatistical treatment. It had taken almost four thousand years for epidemiology to emerge as a discipline ready, by about 1920, to stand on its own feet among the medical arts and sciences. To Frost also we owe in part the concept that an epidemic is but a temporary phase in the occurrence of any disease and as such epidemiology represented more than the study of epidemics and was a science ready to be applied to all diseases.
Few would disagree with Paul’s assessment of Frost’s work, a fact that makes the scant attention paid to Frost by the teachers of epidemiology in their textbooks puzzling. It cannot be that his name was forgotten; half of the texts did refer to one of his papers. Furthermore, in 1972 the Epidemiology Section of the American Public Health Association initiated a series of Wade Hampton Frost lectures at its annual meetings; these were continued for more than two decades, although, unfortunately, relatively few were published.
Several of the earlier lectures emphasized the different facets of epidemiology to which Frost had contributed. In the first lecture, Abraham Lilienfeld reviewed the progressive spread of epidemiologic methods to the study of chronic noninfectious diseases, a trend started by Frost. John Fox noted Frost’s pioneering use of the family as a unit for epidemiologic study.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Wade Hampton Frost, Pioneer Epidemiologist 1880-1938Up to the Mountain, pp. xi - xivPublisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004