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Plague, Pox and Pestilence: Disease in History, by Kenneth F. Kiple, published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, 1997, 25.00, ISBN 0 297 82254 3
In his allegorical novel `The Plague', Albert Camus suggested that what we learn in a time of pestilence is that there are more things to admire in men than to despise. In the wellillustrated and fascinating book Plague, Pox and Pestilence, there are ample opportunities to admire how previous generations and pioneers of medicine coped with pestilence. It also causes us to reflect on how we cope with persisting plagues in our own times, including those unrelated to infection.
The editor, a distinguished historian, romps through the history of infection and other scourges through a series of `pestilential examples` by other specialists in the history of diseases. The title of the book is a little misleading, as is the cover illustration of a costume used to protect against plague, because the examples are by no means confined to infection. Anaemia, epilepsy, ergotism, rickets and scurvy are included, as...