THE SWEATING SICKNESS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2046, 15 May 1890, Page 3

THE SWEATING SICKNESS.

A century later this oountry was attaoked by another serious epidemic, the sweating sickness, whioh wes so called bcoiuae, in the words of an old writer, " it did most stand in sweating from beginning to ending." It first made its appearance in and Itn B eEerall J r known on the Continent ai the English Sweat," It was obierved generally to spare foreigners in England, and also to be specially fatal ta Englishmen when it appeared abroad j and it was surmised that the immoderate use of beer, then so common in England, rendered its inhabitants particularly susceptibly to the disease. Beginning in WBS, in the army of Eichmond, afterwards Uenry VII., it spread quickly over the oountiy with most fatal results. It seems to I have been a * pedes of virulent inflammatory fever, which suffused the whole body with a fetid pirspiration, the crisis generally occurring within twenty-four hours of the first seizure. Like most other epidemics, it was specially fatal to healthy vigorous men m the prime of life, and hardly 1 per cent, of suoh ever recovered. In London, where it raged with peculiar violence, two Lord Mayors and six Aldermen died in one week. The first outbreak continued its ravages until the end of the year, its cessation being nearly coincident with a violent tempest on New Year's day, 1486, which was supposed to have oaused its disappearance. Further outbreaks of this epidemio have occurred in England in 1506 and 1517, when again London suffered severely ; and in 1528 and 1529 not only this country, but also France and 3ermany, and, in a leas degree, Holland, Sweden, and Poland were also visited by the same pestilence. The last appearance of the sweating sickness in England was in 1551, when the disease was particularly virulent between Shrewsbury and the Valley of the Severn.—Chambers' Journal.