The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-10-08
The Sweating Sickness.


The sweating sickness made its first
appearance in England II few days be-
fore the battle of Bosworth. sin the
year of our Lord 1885," writes DR..
Gains, Welsh physician, who had made
the disease his special study, " shortly
after the It'll day Of August, ut which
time King Henry the VII. arrived Mt
Milford, Wales, out of France, and in
the first year of his reign, there CHANGED
n disease among the people, lasting the
rest of that month and all September,
which, for the sudden sharpness and un-
wont crllelness, passed the pestilence.
For this commonly giveth III 4, often
z, sometimes 8, sometimes II, and some-
times ID days, respite to whom it vexeth.
But that Immediately killed some in
opening their windows, some in playing
with children in their street doors; some
in one hour. many in two, it destroyed;
and, Mt the longest, to them that merrily
dined it gave sorrowful supper. AS it
found them so it took them; some in
sleep; some in wake, some in mirth,
some i'll care, some fasting and some full,
some busy and some idle; and in one
house sometimes 3, sometimes 5, somc-
times more, sometimes all; of the which
If the half in every town escaped, it was
thought great favor. This disease, be-
cause it most did stand in sweating from
the beginning until the ending, was call
ed The Sweating SicknCsS; and because
it first began in England, it was named
in other countries The English Sweat.
In the Summer Of 150G, 1917, and 1928
this curious epidemic reappeared, and it
again broke out at Shrewsbury, where 1t
ragged from April to September, 1861,
spreading afterwards throughout the
whole Kingdom. We read that in 1919
great dread of its return prevailed, but
happily the fears of the country proved
groundless. One OF the strange features
of this disease was its partially for En-
glishmen. Wherever Englishmen con-
gregated, there it attacked them, "fol-
lowing them, as the shadow does the
body, i'll all countries, albeit not ut all
times" In Calais, Antwerp, aud Bra
bant it generally singled ont the En-
glish residents and visitors, while the
native population escaped unaffected.
The chief victims were the robust and
powerful, whose sound digestion permit
ted them to indulge in the pleasures of
the table; "thin-dieted men it rarely
attacked. The illness began with Il few
er, followed by severe internal strug-
giles, which caused profrlse prespira-
ton to break out. If the constitution
proved strong enough to expel the poi
son, the sufferer escaped. One of the
chief results of the malady was to cause
such M utter prostration of the nervous
system that the patient often yielded
without struggle, "seeing how it be-
gan fearfully to invade them, furiously
handled them, speedily Cypress them,
numerically choke them, and that in no
small numbers; and such persons, so
notably noble in birth, goodly condi-
tons, grave sobriety, singular wisdom,
and great learning" The estate
Papers of thereign of Henry VIII. are
full of illusions to the epidemic. When
it first appeared every precaution was
taken to cut off the infection. The in
habitants of houses in which the disease
had broken out were ordered to keep
within doors, to hang out wisps of straw,
and when convalescent to carry white
rods