Sweating sickness

For the benign condition characterized by abnormally increased perspiration, see Hyperhidrosis. For the tick-borne disease of cattle in Africa, see Sweating sickness (cattle).

Sweating sickness, also known as the sweats, English sweating sickness, English sweat or sudor anglicus in Latin, was a mysterious and contagious disease that struck England and later continental Europe in a series of epidemics beginning in 1485. Other major outbreaks of the English sweating sickness occurred in 1508, 1517, and 1528, with the last outbreak in 1551, after which the disease apparently vanished.^[1] The onset of symptoms was sudden, with death often occurring within hours. Sweating sickness epidemics were unique compared with other disease outbreaks of the time: whereas other epidemics were typically urban and long-lasting, cases of sweating sickness spiked and receded very quickly, and heavily affected rural populations.^[2] Its cause remains unknown, although it has been suggested that an unknown species of hantavirus was responsible.

Sweating sickness
Other names	English sweating sickness, English sweat, (Latin) sudor anglicus
Specialty	Infectious diseases
Symptoms	chills, body pains, weakness^[1]
Causes	Unknown

Signs and symptoms

John Caius was a physician in Shrewsbury in 1551, when an outbreak occurred, and he described the symptoms and signs of the disease in A Boke or Counseill Against the Disease Commonly Called the Sweate, or Sweatyng Sicknesse (1552), which is the main historical source of knowledge of the disease. It began very suddenly with a sense of apprehension, followed by cold shivers (sometimes very violent), dizziness, headache and severe pains in the neck, shoulders and limbs, with great exhaustion. The cold stage might last from half an hour to three hours, after which the hot and sweating stage began. The characteristic sweat broke out suddenly without any obvious cause. A sense of heat, headache, delirium, rapid pulse and intense thirst accompanied the sweat. Palpitation and pain in the heart were frequent symptoms. No skin eruptions were noted by observers. In the final stages there was either general exhaustion and collapse or an irresistible urge to sleep, which Caius thought was fatal if the patient were permitted to give way to it. One attack did not produce immunity, and some people suffered several bouts before dying.^[1] The disease typically lasted through one full day before recovery or death took place.^[3] The disease tended to occur in summer and early autumn.

Thomas Forestier, a physician during the first outbreak, provided a written account of his own experiences with the sweating sickness in 1485.^[4] Forestier put great emphasis on the sudden breathlessness commonly associated with the final hours of sufferers.^[4] Forestier claimed in an account written for other physicians that "loathsome vapors" had congregated around the heart and lungs.^[4] His observations point towards a pulmonary component of the disease.^[4]

Transmission

Transmission mostly remains a mystery, with only a few pieces of evidence in writing.^[3] Despite greatly affecting the rural and working classes of the time, the sweating sickness did not discriminate, as it was no less likely to affect young, seemingly fit men, including those of the elite or privileged classes. Based upon recorded accounts, the mortality rate among victims was highest in males aged 30-40 years.^[4] The fact that it infected all levels of society, from rich to poor, earned the sweating sickness various nicknames, such as "Stoop Gallant" or "Stoop Knave"—referencing how the 'proud' castes were forced to 'stoop' and face their own humanity, thus relinquishing their higher status.^[5][3]

The large number of people present in London to witness the coronation of Henry VII may have accelerated the spread of the disease, and indeed many other airborne pathogens.^[3]

Cause

The cause is unknown. Commentators then and now have blamed the sewage, poor sanitation, and contaminated water supplies. The first confirmed outbreak was in August 1485 at the end of the Wars of the Roses, leading to speculation that it may have been brought from France by French mercenaries.^[6] However, an earlier outbreak may have affected the city of York in June 1485, before Henry Tudor's army landed, although records of that disease's symptoms are not adequate enough to be certain.^[7] Regardless, the Croyland Chronicle mentions that Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby cited the sweating sickness as reason not to join Richard III's army prior to the Battle of Bosworth.^[1]

Relapsing fever, a disease spread by ticks and lice, has been proposed as a possible cause. It occurs most often during the summer months, as did the original sweating sickness. However, relapsing fever is marked by a prominent black scab at the site of the tick bite and a subsequent skin rash.

The suggestion of ergot poisoning was ruled out due to England having much less rye (the main cause of ergotism) than the rest of Europe.^[3]

Researchers have noted symptoms overlap with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and have proposed an unknown hantavirus as the cause.^[1][4][8] Hantavirus species are zoonotic diseases carried by bats, rodents, and several insectivores.^[9] Sharing of similar trends (including seasonal occurrences, fluctuations multiple times a year, and occasional occurrences between major outbreaks) suggest the English sweating sickness may have been rodent borne.^[9] The epidemiology of hantavirus correlates with the trends of the English sweating sickness. Hantavirus infections generally do not strike infants, children, or the elderly, and mostly affect middle-aged adults. In contrast to most epidemics of the medieval ages, the English sweating sickness also predominantly affected the middle aged. A criticism of this hypothesis is that modern day hantaviruses, unlike the sweating sickness, do not randomly disappear and can be seen affecting isolated people.^[3] Another is that sweating sickness was thought to have been transmitted from human to human, whereas hantaviruses are rarely spread that way.^[10] However, infection via human contact has been suggested in hantavirus outbreaks in Argentina.^[11]

In 2004, microbiologist Edward McSweegan suggested the disease may have been an outbreak of anthrax poisoning. He hypothesized that the victims could have been infected with anthrax spores present in raw wool or infected animal carcasses, and suggested exhuming victims for testing.^[12]

Numerous attempts have been made to define the disease origin by molecular biology methods, but have so far failed due to a lack of DNA or RNA.^[13]

Epidemiology

 

Arthur, Prince of Wales, who may have died of the sweating sickness in 1502, aged fifteen

 

Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, who in 1551 died of the sweating sickness aged fifteen, just an hour before his brother Charles also succumbed

 

Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, died of the sweating sickness aged thirteen, having held the dukedom for just an hour after his elder brother died of the disease

Fifteenth century

Sweating sickness first came to the attention of physicians at the beginning of the reign of Henry VII, in 1485. It was frequently fatal; half the population perished in some areas. The Ricardian scholar John Ashdown-Hill conjectures that Richard III fell victim the night before the Battle of Bosworth Field and that this accounted for his sleepless night and excessive thirst in the early part of the battle.^[14] There is no definitive statement that the sickness was present in Henry Tudor's troops landing at Milford Haven. The battle's victor Henry VII arrived in London on 28 August, and the disease broke out there on 19 September 1485;^[15] it had killed several thousand people by its conclusion in late October that year.^[16] Among those killed were two lord mayors, six aldermen, and three sheriffs.^[17]

Mass superstition and paranoia followed the new plague. The Battle of Bosworth Field ended the Wars of the Roses, between the houses of Lancaster and York. Richard III, the final York king, was killed there and Henry VII was crowned. As chaos, grief, and anger spread, people searched for a culprit for the plague. English people started to believe it was sent by God to punish supporters of Henry VII.^[18]

The sickness was regarded as being quite distinct from the Black Death, the pestilential fever, or other epidemics previously known because of its extremely rapid and fatal course, and the sweating which gave it its name. It reached Ireland in 1492, when the Annals of Ulster record the death of James Fleming, 7th Baron Slane from the pláigh allais ["perspiring plague"], newly come to Ireland.^[19] The Annals of Connacht also record this obituary,^[20] and the Annals of the Four Masters record "an unusual plague in Meath" of 24 hours' duration;^[21] people recovered if they survived it beyond that 24-hour period. It did not attack infants or little children. English chronicler Richard Grafton mentioned the sweating sickness of 1485 in his work Grafton's Chronicle: or History of England. He noted the common treatment of the disease was to go immediately to bed at the first sign of symptoms; there, the affected person was to remain absolutely still for the entire 24-hour period of the illness, abstaining from any solid food and limiting water intake.^[22]

Sixteenth century

 

Title of a publication in Marburg, 1529, about the English Sweating sickness

The ailment was not recorded from 1492 to 1502. It may have been the condition which afflicted Henry VII's son Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Arthur's wife, Catherine of Aragon, in March 1502; their illness was described as "a malign vapour which proceeded from the air".^[23][24] Researchers who opened Arthur's tomb in 2002 could not determine the exact cause of death. Catherine recovered, but Arthur died on 2 April 1502 in his home at Ludlow Castle, six months short of his sixteenth birthday.^[25]

A second, less widespread outbreak occurred in 1507, followed by a third and much more severe epidemic in 1517, a few cases of which may have also spread to Calais.^[15] In the 1517 epidemic, the disease showed a particular affinity for the English; the ambassador from Venice at the time commented on the peculiarly low number of cases in foreign visitors. A similar effect was noted in 1528 when Calais (then an English territory) experienced an outbreak which did not spread into France.^[5] The 1528 outbreak, the fourth, reached epidemic proportions. It broke out in London at the end of May and spread over the whole of England, save the far north. It did not spread to Scotland, though it did reach Ireland where Lord Chancellor Hugh Inge was the most prominent victim.^[26] The mortality rate was very high in London; Henry VIII broke up the court and left London, frequently changing his residence. In 1529 Thomas Cromwell lost his wife and two daughters to the disease. It is believed several of the closest people to Henry VIII contracted the sickness. His love letters to his mistress, Anne Boleyn, reveal that physicians believed Anne had contracted the illness. Henry sent his second-most trusted physician to her aid, his first being unavailable, and she survived.^[27] Cardinal Wolsey contracted the illness and survived.^[28]

The disease was brought to Hamburg by a ship from England in July 1529.^[29] It spread along the Baltic coast, north to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway as well as south to Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Marburg, and Göttingen in September of that year.^[30] Cases were unknown in Italy or France, except in the English-controlled Pale of Calais. It emerged in Flanders and the Netherlands^[when?],^[15] possibly transmitted directly from England by travellers; it appeared simultaneously in the cities of Antwerp and Amsterdam on the morning of 27 September^{[year missing]}. In each place, it prevailed for a short time, generally not more than two weeks. By the end of the year, it had entirely disappeared except in the eastern part of the Swiss Confederacy, where it lingered into the next year^[which?]. The disease did not recur on mainland Europe.

Final outbreak

The last major outbreak of the disease occurred in England in 1551.^[31] Although burial patterns in smaller towns in Europe suggest that the disease may have been present elsewhere first,^[4] the outbreak is recorded to have begun in Shrewsbury in April.^[5] It killed around 1,000 there, spreading quickly throughout the rest of England^[32] and all but disappearing by October.^[32] It was more prevalent among younger men than other groups, possibly due to their greater social exposure.^[32] John Caius wrote his eyewitness account A Boke or Counseill Against the Disease Commonly Called the Sweate, or Sweatyng Sicknesse. Henry Machin also recorded it in his diary:

the vii day of July begane a nuw swet in London…the x day of July [1551] the Kynges grace removyd from Westmynster unto Hamtun courte, for ther [died] serten besyd the court, and caused the Kynges grase to be gone so sune, for ther ded in London mony marchants and grett ryche men and women, and yonge men and old, of the new swett…the xvi day of July ded of the swet the ii yonge dukes of Suffoke of the swet, both in one bed in Chambrydge-shyre…and ther ded from the vii day of July unto the xix ded of the swett in London of all dyssesus… [872] and no more in alle

— The Diary of Henry Machyn 1550–1563^[33]

The Annals of Halifax Parish of 1551 records 44 deaths in an outbreak there.^[34] An outbreak called 'sweating sickness' occurred in Tiverton, Devon in 1644, recorded in Martin Dunsford's History, killing 443 people, 105 of them buried in October.^[35] However, no medical particulars were recorded, and the date falls well after the generally accepted disappearance of the 'sweating sickness' in 1551.^[36]

Picardy sweat

Between 1718 and 1918 an illness with some similarities occurred in France, known as the Picardy sweat.^[37] It was significantly less lethal than the English Sweat but with a strikingly high frequency of outbreaks; some 200 were recorded during the period.^[3] Llywelyn Roberts noted "a great similarity between the two diseases."^[15] There was intense sweating and fever, and Henry Tidy found "no substantial reason to doubt the identity of sudor anglicus and Picardy sweat."^[1][38] There were also notable differences between the Picardy sweat and the English sweating sickness. It was accompanied by a rash, which was not described as a feature of the English disease. Henry Tidy argued that John Caius's report applies to fulminant cases fatal within a few hours, in which case no eruption may develop. The Picardy sweat appears to have had a different epidemiology than the English sweat in that individuals who slept close to the ground and/or lived on farms appeared more susceptible, supporting the theory that the disease could be rodent borne, common in hantaviruses.^[3] In a 1906 outbreak of Picardy sweat which struck 6,000 people, a commission led by bacteriologist André Chantemesse attributed infection to the fleas of field mice.

Citations

1. Heyman P.; Simons L.; Cochez, C. (2014). "Were the English Sweating Sickness and the Picardy Sweat Caused by Hantaviruses?". Viruses. 6 (1): 151–171. doi:10.3390/v6010151. PMC 3917436. PMID 24402305.
2. Dyer, A. (1997). "The English sweating sickness of 1551: an epidemic anatomized". Med. Hist. 41 (3): 362–384. doi:10.1017/s0025727300062724. PMC 1044802. PMID 9327632.
3. Heyman, Paul; Simons, Leopold; Cochez, Christel (January 2014). "Were the English Sweating Sickness and the Picardy Sweat Caused by Hantaviruses?". Viruses. 6 (1): 151–171. doi:10.3390/v6010151. PMC 3917436. PMID 24402305.
4. Thwaites, G; Taviner, M; Gant, V (1997). "The English sweating sickness, 1485 to 1551". The New England Journal of Medicine. 336 (8): 580–582. doi:10.1056/NEJM199702203360812. PMID 9023099.
5. WYLIE, JOHN A. H.; COLLIER, LESLIE H. (1981). "The English Sweating Sickness (Sudor Anglicus): A Reappraisal". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. XXXVI (4): 425–445. doi:10.1093/jhmas/xxxvi.4.425. ISSN 0022-5045. PMID 7037928. from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
6. Theilmann, John M. (2008). Byrnes, Joseph P. (ed.). Encyclopedia of pestilence, pandemics, and plagues. Greenwood Press. p. 686, "Sweating Sickness". ISBN 978-0313341014.
7. Petre, James (1985). Richard III crown and people. Sutton Publishing Ltd. p. 383. ISBN 978-0904893113. A 'plage of pestilence' was known in York as early as June 1485, but no symptoms were described, and we cannot tell what gave [Sir Thomas] Stanley the idea to cite the sweating sickness.
8. Taviner, M; Thwaites, G; Gant, V (1998). "The English sweating sickness, 1485–1551: A viral pulmonary disease?". Medical History. 42 (1): 96–98. doi:10.1017/S0025727300063365. PMC 1043971. PMID 9536626.
9. Heyman, Paul; Simons, Leopold; Cochez, Christel (7 January 2014). "Were the English Sweating Sickness and the Picardy Sweat Caused by Hantaviruses?". Viruses. 6 (1): 151–171. doi:10.3390/v6010151. ISSN 1999-4915. PMC 3917436. PMID 24402305.
10. Bridson, Eric (2001). "The English 'sweate' (Sudor Anglicus) and Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome". British Journal of Biomedical Science. 58 (1): 1–6. PMID 11284216.
11. Padula, P; Edelstein, A; Miguel, SD; López, NM; Rossi, CM; Rabinovich, RD (15 February 1998). "Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome outbreak in Argentina: molecular evidence for person-to-person transmission of Andes virus". Virology. 241 (2). London: Elsevier: 323–330. doi:10.1006/viro.1997.8976. PMID 9499807.
12. McSweegan, Edward (17 January 2004). "Riddle solved?". New Scientist. from the original on 23 May 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
13. Paul Heyman, Christel Cochez, Mirsada Hukić (2018). "The English Sweating Sickness: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?". Acta Medica Academica. 47 (1): 102–116. doi:10.5644/ama2006-124.22. PMID 29957978. from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2020.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
14. Ashdown-Hill, John (2015). The Mythology of Richard III.
15. Roberts, L (1945). "Sweating Sickness and Picardy Sweat". British Medical Journal. 2 (4414): 196. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4414.196. PMC 2059547.
16. Entick, John (1766). A new and accurate history and survey of London, Westminster, Southwark, and places adjacent. London. pp. 434, vol. 1.
17. Harrison, Walter (1775). A new and universal history, description and survey of the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark. London. p. 127.
18. Schölpfel, Joachim; Soukouya, Maebena (November 2013). "Providing Access to Electronic Theses and Dissertations: A Case Study from Togo". D-Lib Magazine. 19 (11/12). doi:10.1045/november2013-schopfel. ISSN 1082-9873.
19. Annals of Ulster vol.iii, ed. B. MacCarthy, Dublin, 1895, pp. 358f.
20. Annals of Connacht ed. A. M. Freeman, Dublin, 1944, pp. 594f.
21. Annals of the Four Masters vol.iii, ed. J. O'Donovan, Dublin, 1856, pp 1194f.
22. Grafton, Richard (1809). "Grafton's chronicle : or, History of England from the Year 1189 to 1558". The Library. 2: 161. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.library.a090806. ISSN 1744-8581.
23. Weir, Alison (2007). The Six Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Grove Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-8021-3683-1.
24. Hibbert, Christopher (2010). The Virgin Queen: A Personal History of Elizabeth I. New York: Viking Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-84885-555-7.
25. Ives, Eric (2007). Henry VIII. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-19-921759-5.
26. Ball, F. Elrington (2005) [First published 1926]. The Judges in Ireland, 1221–1921. The Lawbook Exchange. pp. 117–. ISBN 978-1-58477-428-0. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
27. Henry VIII, King of England (27 April 2010). "Letter Ninth". The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn; With Notes. from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2020 – via Project Gutenberg.
28. Grove, Joseph (1742). The history of the life and times of Cardinal Wolsey, prime minister to King Henry Viii. I. Of his Birth, and the various Steps he took to attain Preferment, connected with Affairs, both Foreign and Domestick, from the Death of Edward IV. to the End of the Reign of Henry Vii. II. Of his Conduct and Management while Prime Minister, (commencing with the Reign of Henry Viii.) and continued by way of Annals to his Disgrace and Death, including the general Transactions of Europe. III. Memoirs of the Emperor Charles V. Henry Viii. and Francis I. from the Demise of the Cardinal to their respective Deaths. IV. The secret History of the Cardinal, by George Cavendish, Esq; his Gentleman Usher, written in the Reign of Philip and Mary. In which are interspersed The Lives and memorable Actions of the most eminent Persons: And the whole illustrated with Political and Moral Reflections. Collected from antient Records, Manuscripts, and Historians. ... . Adorn'd with Cuts, and a compleat Index. printed by J. Purser, for the author, and sold by J. Stagg, in Westminster-Hall; J. Brindley, in Bond-Street; R. Chandler and C. Ward, at Temple-Bar, York and Scarborough; L. Gilliver, and J. Whiston, in Fleet-Street; J. Huggonson, on Ludgate-Hill; T. Astley, in St. Paul's Church-Yard; R. Willock, J. Wood, J. Clarke, and W. Meadows, in Cornhill; and J. Walthoe, at Richmond in Surry. (London) Volume: 3. pp. 7–20.
29. Gruner, Christian Gottfried (1847). Scriptores de sudore anglico superstites. pp. 443–444. Retrieved 3 February 2024 – via Internet Archive.
30. Christiansen, John (2009). "The English Sweat in Lübeck and North Germany, 1529". Medical History. 53 (3): 415–24. doi:10.1017/s0025727300004002. PMC 2706052. PMID 19584960.
31. Hunter, Paul R. (1991). "The English Sweating Sickness, with Particular Reference to the 1551 Outbreak in Chester". Reviews of Infectious Diseases. 13 (2): 303–306. doi:10.1093/clinids/13.2.303. JSTOR 4455857. PMID 2041963.
32. Dyer, Alan (1997). "The English Sweating Sickness of 1551: An Epidemic Anatomized". Medical History. 41 (3): 362–384. doi:10.1017/S0025727300062724. ISSN 0025-7273. PMC 1044802. PMID 9327632.
33. Henry Machin (1848), The Diary of Henry Machyn 1550–1563, pp. 7–8
34. Taylor, D (28 March 1972). "Annals of the Parish of Halifax". Halifax Antiquarian Society: 109. 1551 44 persons died of the 'sweating Sickness' in the Halifax Parish.
35. Dunsford, Martin (1836). "Historical memoirs of the town and parish of Tiverton": 36. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
36. Creighton, Charles (1891). A history of epidemics in Britain. Cambridge Univ. p. 554. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
37. Foster, Michael G. (1919). "Sweating Sickness in Modern Times". Contributions to Medical & Biological Research. Vol. 1. New York: Paul B. Hoeber. pp. 52–53 – via Internet Archive.
38. Tidy, H. (945). "Sweating Sickness and Picardy Sweat". Br Med J. 2 (4410): 63–64. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4410.63-a. PMC 2059374.

Sources

•   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sweating-Sickness". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 186–187.
• Bridgett, Thomas Edward (1904). Life and Writings of Blessed Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England and Martyr Under Henry VIII. Original from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. p. 74.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading

• Bridson, E (2001). "The English 'sweate' (Sudor Anglicus) and Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome". British Journal of Biomedical Science. 58 (1): 1–6. PMID 11284216.
• Carlson, J. R.; Hammond, P. W. (1999). "The English Sweating Sickness (1485-c.1551): A New Perspective on Disease Etiology". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 54: 23–54. doi:10.1093/jhmas/54.1.23.
• Dyer, A (1997). "The English sweating sickness of 1551: An epidemic anatomized". Medical History. 41 (3): 362–384. doi:10.1017/s0025727300062724. PMC 1044802. PMID 9327632.
• Flood, John L. "Englischer Schweiß und deutscher Fleiß. Ein Beitrag zur Buchhandelsgeschichte des 16. Jahrhunderts," in The German book in Wolfenbüttel and abroad. Studies presented to Ulrich Kopp in his retirement, ed. William A. Kelly & Jürgen Beyer [Studies in reading and book culture 1] (Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2014), pp. 119–178. (in German)
• Thwaites, Guy; Taviner, Mark; Gant, Vanya (1997). "The English Sweating Sickness, 1485 to 1551". New England Journal of Medicine. 336 (8): 580–582. doi:10.1056/NEJM199702203360812. PMID 9023099.
• Wylie, J. A.; Collier, L. H. (1981). "The English Sweating sickness (sudor Anglicus): A reappraisal". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 36 (4): 425–445. doi:10.1093/jhmas/xxxvi.4.425. PMID 7037928.

External links

• Sweating Fever Jim Leavesley commemorates the 500th anniversary of the first outbreak – transcript of talk on Ockham's Razor, ABC Radio National
• "The Sweating Sickness Returns", Discover Magazine, 1 June 1997