jjares reviewed The English Sweating Sickness: The History and Legacy of the Mysterious Disease that Plagued Medieval London on + 3262 more book reviews
Perhaps we are not familiar with the 'sweating sickness' because it was lumped with the plagues that swept through Europe during various ages. In fact, this book makes a point of saying that the sweating sickness had abated, when a bit later the Bubonic Plague blew through London and killed more people than the sweat. This disease tended to affect the wealthy and people living in close quarters (university students and monastery inhabitants ).
What is absolutely fascinating is that this sweating disease attacked the wealthy and upper classes instead of the poor. It also just hit England, not Ireland, Wales, or Scotland. In fact, it tells the story of King Arthur and Catherine of Aragon's marriage (and Arthur's death) and Henry VIII's early life through the prism of the sweating sickness. People thought Arthur died of scarlet fever, but it might have been sweating sickness. Henry VIII spent much of his life trying to avoid the dreaded disease. Anne Boleyn got it and survived.
When Henry split with the Catholic Church over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, it was bandied about that the sweating sickness was God's punishment on the English for Henry's sin against the Church and God. There's a great sentence that sums up the terrible status of medical attention at the time of the plagues and sweating sickness, "... medical professionals of the era were literary, medical, and religious hybrids, .... " There were 5 outbreaks of this sweating disease; with gaps of 22, 10, 11, and 23 years between them.
This book is very interesting because it separates the sweating sickness from the various plagues. The author talks about the established medical theories of the day and how medical science is still trying to figure out what was/is the source of the sweating sickness. Great reading.
What is absolutely fascinating is that this sweating disease attacked the wealthy and upper classes instead of the poor. It also just hit England, not Ireland, Wales, or Scotland. In fact, it tells the story of King Arthur and Catherine of Aragon's marriage (and Arthur's death) and Henry VIII's early life through the prism of the sweating sickness. People thought Arthur died of scarlet fever, but it might have been sweating sickness. Henry VIII spent much of his life trying to avoid the dreaded disease. Anne Boleyn got it and survived.
When Henry split with the Catholic Church over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, it was bandied about that the sweating sickness was God's punishment on the English for Henry's sin against the Church and God. There's a great sentence that sums up the terrible status of medical attention at the time of the plagues and sweating sickness, "... medical professionals of the era were literary, medical, and religious hybrids, .... " There were 5 outbreaks of this sweating disease; with gaps of 22, 10, 11, and 23 years between them.
This book is very interesting because it separates the sweating sickness from the various plagues. The author talks about the established medical theories of the day and how medical science is still trying to figure out what was/is the source of the sweating sickness. Great reading.
