Introduction - Historical Notes

A Lesson in Epidemiology 1

Voltaire (1694-1778) The French writer Francois Marie Arouet (pen name: Voltaire) was a tireless fighter for general enlightenment and against superstition and intolerance.

Voltaire’s satirical novel “Candide” (1759) tells the story of a naïve young German nobleman who believes with his philosophy teacher Pangloss that we live “in the best of all possible worlds”. As it turns out, however, he suffers one misfortune after another and, after having been separated from Pangloss, he eventually meets him again by accident in a truly pitiful state. Pangloss tells him:

"O my dear Candide, you remember Pacquette, that pretty maid, who waited on our noble Baroness. In her arms I tasted the pleasures of paradise, and they produced these torments of hell which are now destroying me. She was infected with a disease and perhaps has since died of it. She had received this present from a learned Franciscan, who had derived it from its source: He was indebted for it to an old countess, who had it from a captain of the cavalry, who had it from a marquise, who had it from a page. The page had it from a Jesuit, who, during his novitiate, had received it in a direct line from one of the fellow adventurers of Christopher Columbus. For my part I shall give it to no one, because I am dying."