INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

The disease regime of England changed between the early modern period and the present day, from one where acute infectious diseases were predominant to one where the chronic illnesses of middle and old age came to the fore. Also, new diseases have appeared whilst others have disappeared, and, in general, it can be difficult to be sure that diseases can be properly identified from past descriptions. Nevertheless, despite these major caveats we can have a hazy, if not precise, certainty that we still share today many of the ills of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. And even if the diseases are different, the pains and disabilities of illness and the outcomes of recovery, chronic suffering or death experienced by the sick are recognisable across the centuries, though the environment of illness has moved from home to hospital and though many of the cultural meanings of illness have changed.

This makes the history of diseases relevant and interesting to the present. Historical demographers have assessed the impact of diseases like plague and smallpox upon populations in the past, whilst in recent years medical historians have explored the world of illnesses from the patient's point of view. However, less is known about early modern perceptions of the range of ill conditions, illnesses and diseases, of lay people's ability to diagnose illness, and of the way medical writers constructed images of disease within the body using anatomical signposting.