Volume 17, Issue 3

𝟏𝟕(𝟑) 𝑪𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 In the second half of the nineteenth century, although germ theory had already sprouted, effective countermeasures against specific diseases were still lacking in Meiji Japan. Instead, more “discursive and long-term” approaches emerged that focused on the practice of sanitation.* This picture shows a gendarme—a military officer in charge of policing sanitary habits—helping to remove a corpse packed firmly in a wooden tub for cremation. Credit: Disposal of the dead, under police supervision during a cholera epidemic in Japan. Reproduction of drawing by Meisenbach after C. Fripp. Wellcome Collection. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/f63d87rp Cover Design: Awai ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * Shannon, Kerry. 2023. “Reinventing ‘Hygiene’: The Sanitary Society of Japan and Public Health Reform During the Mid-Meiji Period.” East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal 17 (3): 285–306.