Link between environment and health: historical and epistemic perspective

The notion of environment is today nearly ubiquitous within the field of health sciences. Links between environment and health have long been reported and described in medicine, nursing, and public health. The article analyzes the historical construction of perspectives on these links by following a thread that weaves through Hippocratic and aerist medical theories, urban medicine, and the hygienist current of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The discussion examines the materialist and topographic conceptualization of the environment that has dominated the body of knowledge and informed interventions. The conclusion exposes the extent to which this conceptualization obscures the link between environment and health by neglecting social, political, aesthetic and sensory dimensions.