Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

immediately sought to send medical aid to the Faroes. Two doctors were asked to take on the task.

One was twenty-six year old August Manicus. His father, Claus Manicus, had been country surgeon on the Faroe Islands from 1820-28. Accordingly, his son had spent his childhood in Tórshavn and had been a playmate of both Vencil Hammershaimb and Doffa.

The second doctor, the orange man, was better known as Peter Ludvig Panum.

For five months, the two traveled the islands administering medical aid. Panum also made a thorough examination of Faroese living conditions. He scrutinized factors such as housing, hygiene, diet, and food preparation – and he recorded every last detail. He also described the clothing, and the overall affect that weather had on the health of body and soul.

His results were published in the doctors’ medical journal Bibliothek for Læger in the spring of 1847.

Of course, before June 17, 1846, what no one, not even Panum himself, realized was that his treatise would become one of modern epidemiology’s great breakthroughs.

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