miasmatist n and adj
A person who studies or investigates miasmas, esp. one who believes in the causation of disease by miasmas. Also in fig. context.
1858 B. DOWLER Mississippi River & New Orleans 682 Authorities might be cited among miasmatists themselves to show that noxious gases may be absorbed, or imbibed, or otherwise limited..by bodies of water. 1890 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon, Miasmatist, one learned, or believing, in Miasm. 1940 Science 9 Feb. 129/2 Hence, nearly two centuries of sterile philosophizing and controversy between miasmatists and contagionists. 1972 Jrnl. Health & Social Behavior 13 200 In rejecting the medical model of mental disorder, the modern-day miasmatist advocates..removal of the vast reservoirs of psychic sewerage that pollute the environment. 1997 R. PORTER Greatest Benefit to Mankind x. 259 Historians have tended to divide disease theorists into rival camps: miasmatists versus contagionists.
