76 RüdigerKunow
usefulness.^26 Mary Mallon in turn sought to win over the public and
override expert medical opinion through a number of little-guy-against-
the-systemstories.
That the biology of human beings could so effortlessly be inserted
into the public domain is due in no small part to the availability of a
popularculturalscript,namelythatofapersonhidingoutinthemazeof
the densely populated cities. Such a person was a (criminal) deviant
character which it made imperative thathe orshe be found and brought
underlockandkey,possiblywiththehelpofakindofurbanpathfinder:
the detective.^27 This urban hide-and-seek script possibly originated with
Edgar Allan Poe. In the context of the Mellon case, the crime under
investigation was not embezzlement or homicide but that of passing-on
biologicalpathogenswhilethepublichealthinspectorbecameacriminal
investigator. His role was curiously like that of the narrator of Poe's
"Man of the Crowd" (1840): looking at the object of his search as "the
type and the genius of deep crime" (107, 109), only that this time the
crime was biological in nature and the detective had become amedical
detective.Thisnewtypeofbiomedicalsleuthisstillverymuchwithus,
in countless variations and in all kinds of media, as will be seen below
(cf. the section on the public life of public disease). In the Mallon case,
the contemporary medical detectives, both health care experts and the
general public alike, were baffled by one thing above all else: that this
womanwasunreadable.AsIsaidbefore,Mallonwasahealthy-looking
young woman, yet a carrier of disease who showed no symptoms of
disease and no signs of culpable or even criminal behavior. In addition,
she managed to hide away in the urban crowds. Her body did
communicate (namely infectious biological pathogens)^28 but it was not
(^26) As Shah argues, "[t]he successful management of public health required the
acceptance of scientific authority and the appearance of control" (124). To this
mightbeaddedSinger'sobservationthatsuchcontroldemands—dialecticallyas
itwere—thereproductionofthedangertobecontrolled(29-30).
(^27) The affinity between the public health expert tracing the origins of an
infectious disease and the detective is developed at greater length by Priscilla
Wald,esp.Cultures20-23,217.
(^28) ThisisnotintendedtodenythatalreadyatthattimeAmericanmedicinecould
anddidusediagnostictoolsthatdidnotdependonvisibleevidence,forexample
bloodsamplesorfecalspecima.