SWEATING SICKNESS. An extremely fatal epidemic disease which prevailed in Europe, and especially Englanfi, during the fifteenth, six teenth, and early part of the seventeenth cen turies. From the fact that the English people both at home and abroad were chiefly attacked. the malady was known as the 'English sweat' or 'English ephemera.' It first appeared in August, 1485, in the army of Henry VII. shortly after his arrival in Wales from France to fight the bat tle of Bosworth, and in a few weeks it had spread to London. It was a violent inflammatory fever, attacking as a rule robust, vigorous men, and characterized by a short chill, painful oppression over the epigastrium, headache, stupor,, and a profuse fetid sweat. The disease took its course in about twenty-four hours. The patient suf fered profound prostration and intense internal fever, but refrigerants seemed only to do harm. This epidemic lasted about a month, but during this short period many thousands died. The dis ease returned to England in 1506, 1517, 1528. and 1551. The epidemic of 1528 was particularly severe and was long referred to as 'the great mortality.' It raged over Europe—Germany, the Netherlands. Denmark. Sweden, Norway, Po
land, Lithuania, and Livonia were all attacked.
In Hanover alone S000 persons died. After 1551 no further epidemic occurred until the beginning of the eighteenth century. Since that time nu merous outbreaks have been noted, but in a milder form. The disease is nearly always prevalent in sonic part of the world, most frequently in France ( Picardy) and Italy, under the more modern name of miliary fever. (See MILIARIA.) In Germany it is still known as the 'English sweat.' As now observed, the disease is character ized by fever, profuse sweats, and an eruption of miliary vesicles. As in influenza a large num ber of people are attacked, but the epidemic lasts sometimes not more than seven or eight days, and the mortality is not high. For full his torical accounts of the epidemics of the Middle Ages. consult Dr. Cains, A Bokc .lgairst the ,8rcotyng NicmC8sC (1552) ; Hecker, Epidemics of the Jliddle yes (.S'ydenhant Society actions); Hirsch, Geographical and Historical Pathology (new Sydenligm Sock! y Transactions, vol. i.1; and Creighton's History of Epidemics in Britain (1891) •