Illnesses and Ailments
In the Shakespearean / Elizabethan times, no one knew of the importance of sanitation due to microscopic organisms called germs. Because of this unsanitary behavior, people in England at this time were subject to many illnesses, the most popular being the plague. The plague was carried in infected fleas. These fleas would then jump onto rodents and other animals. These animals would come into people's houses and the fleas would eventually jump onto the humans, thus spreading a plague epidemic, which killed over 30,000 people in the year 1603.
There were many other ailments besides the plague, of course. Most are still around in modern times. Below, I have constructed a list of some of the many different illnesses prevalent to the Elizabethan time period.
- Ague: Agues were various fevers. They are thought to probably be types of malaria. Some of the cures were Peruvian Bark, opium poppy juice, and even spider web.
- Chaudepisse (a.k.a gonorrhea): Thought to be a side effect of bladder stones (we know better nowadays). It eventually became known as the clap.
- Consumption (tuberculosis): An infecton transmitted through contact in close quarters. One cure was to take various meats and squeeze all their juices together with some orange juice.
- Rickets (a.k.a. English Disease): Rickets is caused by lack of vitamin D. This results in lack of bone growth. James I was thought to have suffered from rickets when he was younger.
- Epilepsy (a.k.a "Falling Sickness"): Epilepsy was a nervous disorder that resulted in convulsions and unconciousness. One cure was to "drink spring water at night from the skull of one who has been slain". Wearing cramp-rings (rings hollowed by the monarch on Good Friday) was believed to cure the convulsions.
- Syphilis (a.k.a French Pox): Symptoms were small lesions leadeing to rashes, thinning of hair, and distinctive stench. The main treatment was mercurial ointment. To prevent this disease, men were told to wash the genitals in vinegar or white wine after sex.
- Diabetes (a.k.a. "Immoderate Pissing"): People tried to cure diabetes by forcing the ill person to drink cold water until he/she vomited.
- King's Evil: This was tuberculosis of the soft tissues. People thought it could be cured "by the royal touch".
- Pox: This was not the same as the French pox or chicken pox. This name usually meant the smallpox disease. In 1562, Queen Elizabeth nearly died of smallpox. Doctors said to hang red curtains around the bed of the ill.
- Sweating Sickness (a.k.a "the English Sweat"): Thought to be a viral infection. This disease was not a type of influenza, which was an epidemic of the Elizabethan time period. It had a 40% mortality rate. Victims died usually within two hours. Sleeping was thought to be fatal, so the ill were told to stay awake. They would be left in a room with a fire to let the sweat "run it's course".
Source:The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Renaissance England. By: Kathy Lynn Emerson.
