The Sweating Sickness

Caius, John, 1510-1573Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 77K words
Chapters: 8

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. The Sweating Sickness by John Caius. Author: Caius, John, 1510–1573. Language: English. Class: RC: Medicine: Internal medicine. Release Date: August 23, 2010.

Editor's review

This is the sixteenth-century English physician John Caius's classic account of the sweating sickness, a rare first-hand observation among early medical texts. Writing as a doctor, Caius records the disease's outbreaks in England, its symptoms, and its treatments; the text carries the medical ideas and modes of reasoning of its time, making it valuable both as a historical source and as a reflection of the conceptual framework that preceded modern medicine. For historians of medicine and disease, it is an irreplaceable primary source; for general readers, it offers a direct sense of how premodern medicine confronted an unknown epidemic with confusion and resourcefulness. Be warned: the book is steeped in the humoral theory and religious explanations of the day, very different from modern medical knowledge. Read it with a historical eye and do not use it as a guide to prevention or treatment. The book is short and well suited as supplementary reading for a course on medical history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers and students in the history of medicine and disease
Readers interested in early modern English society and public health
History enthusiasts who enjoy reading primary sources

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking modern medical diagnosis or treatment advice
Readers hoping for light popular science or a story-driven narrative

Reading tips

Familiarize yourself with sixteenth-century European medicine before reading, to make sense of the book's ideas.
Mark Caius's descriptions of symptoms as you read and compare them with later medical accounts.
Read alongside sources on Tudor social history to understand the disease's social impact.
After finishing, write a short commentary distinguishing historical observation from period limitations.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What kind of disease was the sweating sickness?

The sweating sickness was an acute infectious disease that broke out repeatedly in England and elsewhere in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, characterized by high fever, profuse sweating, and high mortality. Its cause remains disputed. Caius's book records contemporary observations of symptoms and treatment attempts and is an important historical document for studying the disease.

Do the book's medical views still have value today?

Its explanations of causes and its treatments rest on sixteenth-century humoral theory and differ greatly from modern medicine; they cannot serve as a basis for diagnosis or treatment. Its value is historical: it records how physicians of the time observed, described, and responded to an unknown epidemic, and it is primary material for the history of medicine.

Will general readers get anything from this book?

Yes, but expectations should be adjusted. It is not popular science but a historical document. General readers can see the mindset of premodern medicine and the real human response to plague; it suits readers interested in history who approach it as primary source material.

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About the author

Caius, John, 1510-1573 Author

John Caius (1510–1573) was an English physician and scholar. Public information about his life is limited, and he is known to later generations mainly through his writings. Four of his works are held here, spanning natural history, medical history, and linguistics. De Canibus Britannicis: Of Englishe Dogges is devoted to British dog breeds and is a valuable early English document on their classification and description. De Rariorum Animalium atque Stirpium Historia records rare animals and plants, reflecting his interest in natural history. The Sweating Sickness discusses the sweating sickness that once terrified England, and belongs to medical history and the observation of epidemic disease. De Pronunciatione Graecae & Latinae Linguae examines the pronunciation of Greek and Latin, showing his grounding in classical languages. Overall, his writing combines scholarly erudition with observational records and remains of reference value for the study of British natural history and medical history.