English Sweating Research Articles

The English Sweating Sickness: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

In spite of the fact that the English sweating sickness apparently has not caused casualties for a more than a century now, we suggest that -given the right circumstances- the possibility of re-emergence might still exist. The fact that up until today we have no indication concerning the causal pathogen of the English sweating sickness is certainly not re-assuring.

Were the English sweating sickness and the Picardy sweat caused by hantaviruses?

The English sweating sickness caused five devastating epidemics between 1485 and 1551, England was hit hardest, but on one occasion also mainland Europe, with mortality rates between 30% and 50%. The Picardy sweat emerged about 150 years after the English sweat disappeared, in 1718, in France. It caused 196 localized outbreaks and apparently in its turn disappeared in 1861. Both diseases have been the subject of numerous attempts to define their origin, but so far all efforts were in vain. Although both diseases occurred in different time frames and were geographically not overlapping, a common denominator could be what we know today as hantavirus infections. This review aims to shed light on the characteristics of both diseases from contemporary as well as current knowledge and suggests hantavirus infection as the most likely cause for the English sweating sickness as well as for the Picardy sweat.

The English Sweat in Lübeck and North Germany, 1529

Only two of the epidemics of the English sweating sickness have been the subject of modern demographic studies. Robert Gottfried analysed the mortality of the 1485 epidemic by studying probated wills, and John Wylie and Ian Linn, and more recently Alan Dyer, analysed the 1551 epidemic on the basis of parish burial registers.1 The epidemic of the sweat in England in 1528, which is of special interest in the present context since in all probability it caused the epidemic on the European continent in 1529, has not been studied demographically, possibly because burial records did not exist before 1538. Literary sources, however, seem to indicate that this epidemic was severe. In a letter of 30 June 1528, the French ambassador, Jean Du Bellay, wrote that 40,000 people had been affected by the disease in London, and 2,000 had died, and the descriptions in Raphael Holinshed’s chronicle and in Grafton’s chronicle leave no doubt that this epidemic took a heavy toll.2 Since no demographic analysis of the epidemic on the continent in 1529 has been carried out so far, this article focuses on the outbreak of the sweating sickness in north Germany and Schleswig-Holstein because the existence of testamentary records in Lubeck from the period makes such an analysis possible.

Epidemic Smallpox in India

September/October 2008 · Historically Speaking 31 away; one buttock virtually withered away. The pain in his left shoulder was so great that he could not raise his arm, and both shoulders were withered. There was a constant voiding sore below his ribs on the right side, and a constant stream from the top of his head, running down his back. If you touched the place where this filthy stream began, it felt as though the skull was fractured. Von Hurten recovered because (he believed) he used the new cure of guaiacum wood. Von Hütten started his treatise with the words, "It hath pleased almighty God," Visum Deo est, "that in our time sicknesses should arise which were unknown to our forefathers." This view was shared by medical men. The court physician in Ferrara, Corradino Gilino, wrote in 1499, "We also see that the Supreme Creator, now full of wrath with us for our terrible sins, punishes us with this cruellest of ills which has now spread not only through Italy but across almost the whole of Christendom. Everywhere is the sound of trumpets; everywhere the noise of arms is heard .... Let us say, with the Prophet in the sixth psalm, 'Lord, do not censure me in your anger nor in your wrath afflict us.' This I believe is the cause of this savage plague." Some theologians claimed the sin in question being duly punished by God was luxuria: "seeing that the guilty organ [i.e., the penis] is the organ which suffers, the theologians admire that just and equitable maxim, for a like sin a like penance." The decade of the 1490s was most unfortunate in that it witnessed the appearance of not one but two pandemics: pox and typhus. The latter arose primarily from the new modes of warfare, particularly the widespread use of siege tactics, which pinned down both the besieger and the besieged in frightful conditions. Moreover, "plague" (or diseases that contemporaries called plague) continued to appear every few years, regularly killing its thousands. All these epidemics and pandemics had significant economic—and sometimes political—effects, and these disruptions of society encouraged the view that people were living in the Last Days. * * * Some 350 years later a cholera pandemic struck Europe . This 19th-century pandemic had a significant influence on die thinking of Justus Hecker (17951850 ), a third generation professor of medicine— and soon of the history of medicine—at Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin. When cholera arrived in Europe in 1831, Hecker focused his attention on major epidemics in history. He read medieval and early modern chronicles, rediscovered the great plague of 1348-49 (which had been forgotten ), and named it the "Black Death." He further learned of a dancing mania of the Middle Ages, and the strange disease of the "English sweat" that had broken out in the 16th century and only seems to have affected Englishmen whether at home or abroad. Subsequendy, Hecker worked on die Antonine plague of the 2nd century A.D. On each of these past epidemics Hecker wrote a short book in the early 1830s, which was quickly translated into other languages. Almost single-handedly Hecker had recovered these momentous events of disease history, and he has thus appropriately been styled the originator of historical pathology. But Hecker also saw these epidemics as momentous in the development of human history. For Hecker's interpretation of these epidemics was peculiar. He regarded them as cosmic in origin, and caused by Providence (though not sent as divine punishments ). He saw them as occurring in vast cycles, and their effect was to "renovate" nature. He believed that the story of epidemics, if it could be told, would be allied to the history of the mental development of the human race! In other words, the reaction of human society to disasters such as epidemics could over time improve the moral condition of mankind. So, although Hecker was certainly dealing in terms of historical pathology, it was not in a form that would today be recognized as scientific. The development of laboratory medicine later in the 19th century led to the perception that epidemics are purely natural phenomena, subjects of science rather than eschatology...

Anthrax and the etiology of the English sweating sickness

In 2001, spores of Bacillus anthracis were deliberately sent through the United States postal system, resulting in five deaths from inhalational anthrax. Rarely observed clinical symptoms associated with these cases led to a hypothesis about the etiology of the English Sweating Sickness. The disease appeared sporadically in England between 1485 and 1551. Numerous viruses have been proposed as possible causes of the “English Sweat”. Anthrax has not previously been considered because, documented cases of inhalational anthrax have been rare and pronounced sweating was not a noted symptom of the more common cutaneous and gastrointestinal forms of anthrax. Victims of the English Sweating Sickness have recently been identified in undisturbed tombs. It may be possible to examine those bodies and coffins for the presence of resilient anthrax spores and DNA using modern genomic tools.

The English sweating sickness of 1551: an epidemic anatomized.

Grâce aux registres communaux et ecclesiastiques, le taux de mortalite du a l'epidemie qui ravagea l'Angleterre en 1551 a pu etre etabli. La maladie etait principalement caracterisee par une sudation importante et frappait surtout les hommes jeunes

The English sweating sickness, 1485 to 1551.

In the summer of 1485, a rapidly fatal infectious fever struck England: “A newe Kynde of sickness came through the whole region, which was so sore, so peynfull, and sharp, that the lyke was never h...

The English Sweating Sickness, with Particular Reference to the 1551 Outbreak in Chester

During the 15th and 16th centuries in England, there were five epidemics of a disease characterized by fever and profuse sweating and associated with high mortality. This disease became known as the English sweating sickness. The first epidemic occurred during 1485 at around the time of Henry Tudor's victory at Bosworth Field, and the last took place during the reign of Edward VI in 1551. The disease tended to occur during the summer and early autumn. The relatively affluent male adult population, particularly the clergy, seemed to suffer the highest attack rates, and, except in one epidemic, the disease appears to have attacked only individuals native to England. Despite the reputation of the English sweating sickness as a disease with a high fatality rate, records of burials and wills in Chester suggest that the 1551 epidemic did not have a marked effect on the demographics of the population. The etiologic agent is still unknown, although an enterovirus seems to this author to be the most likely pathogen.

Stinking air, corrupt water, and the English sweat: a footnote to the quality of life in fifteenth-century London.

Stinking air, corrupt water, and the English sweat: a footnote to the quality of life in fifteenth-century London.

The English Sweating sickness (sudor Anglicus): a reappraisal.

The English Sweating sickness (sudor Anglicus): a reappraisal.

The English sweating sickness.

The English sweating sickness.

A CONSIDERATION OF THE NATURE OF THE ENGLISH SWEATING SICKNESS.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Falstaff's Death of a Sweat

N epilogue to 2 Henry IV, Shakespeare made a promise, regrettably unfulfilled, to continue Story (with Sir Iohn it), and forewarned his readers and audience that Falstaffe shall dye of a sweat. This has variously been taken to M P refer to Knight's propensity to sweating, to lues veneris, and to plague.' There is little doubt that last is correct interpretation, and it points to some interesting parallels for famous death-scene as reported by hostess Henry V. It is more appropriate because it does contain overtones of other two characteristics of Falstaff as well: his sweating, and his addiction to venery. Strictly speaking, the sweating sicknesse, or Pestilence, the English sweat or sweating sicknesse (as we terme it) 2, was not actually plague itself but one of neere Cosins to Plague.2 However, common usage and even many of medical manuals terms were used interchangeably.3 Both sweat and plague belonged to family of maladies called Fevwers or Agues. These were most dangerous when different varieties commixed to form agues, and worst complication of all ensued when the and quotidian interpolate be ioyned one.4 This combination was called in english a compound or half tertian. Bicause of hys proper nature he conteineth thone halfe of a tertian, and thother half of a quotidian continual. physicians termed it great compound, and its effects were usually fatal: . . of a number so greued, few escape.5 Dame Quickly's diagnosis of Falstaff's illness as a burning quotidian tertian was not therefore a ludicrous piece of ignorance but, on contrary, an exact medical description. dice were loaded against Falstaff, for his way of life, both spiritually and physically, and his state of mind after his rejection by Prince Hal would each contribute to make him particularly prone to pestilence. Most authorities concurred holding that The first cause of Plague is sinne.6 This was