miasm

By the 1880s most physicians subscribed to the germ theory of disease, discarding the miasm idea, touted by Hippocrates in the fourth century B.C.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 6, 2021

Amid these discomforts, in this ague-breeding miasm, the Tennesseans, under Generals Coffee and Carroll, and the Kentuckians, under General Adair, for days endured the dangers of battle and privations of camp and campaign.

From The Battle of New Orleans including the Previous Engagements between the Americans and the British, the Indians and the Spanish which led to the Final Conflict on the 8th of January, 1815 by Z. F. (Zachariah Frederick) Smith

Roll and others studied the contagiousness of influenza, and, finding it so much more virulent and permanent in old stables than elsewhere, classed it as a "stall miasm."

From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse by Charles B. Michener

Hitherto the cause of contagion, by which certain maladies spread from individual to individual, had been a total mystery, quite unillumined by the vague terms "miasm," "humor," "virus," and the like cloaks of ignorance.

From A History of Science — Volume 4 by Henry Smith Williams

A bilious fever fattens in the sun as does miasm in a marshy valley.

From Hygienic Physiology : with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics by Joel Dorman Steele