During the second half of the nineteenth century, in an effort to combat diseases such as the plague and cholera that spread with impunity across international borders, Iran was at the center of international politics and cooperation. The studies in this book begin with the role Iran played in the international efforts to mitigate the spread of these diseases at a time when the international medical community differed in their opinions about the contagious nature of these diseases and the need and usefulness of quarantine. The essays continue with discussing malaria and rinderpest, which also caused a great deal of human misery and economic loss.