The Plague- Random Thoughts

Physician during the Great Plague

This morning I was perusing Daniel Defoe's Journal of Plague Year.  This book was published in 1722, well after the 1665 bubonic plague that ravaged London. Defoe's inspiration and source for much of the book was from English physician Dr. Nathaniel Hodge's (1629–1688) book on the  Great Plague- Loimologia, or, an historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665, With precautionary Directions against the like Contagion, published in 1672.

Of note is the now very antiquated medical term Loimologia (loimology), the study of pestilential diseases and plagues.

In a few hours I am off the the Infectious Diseases Society of America/Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Conference in San Diego, where, without doubt, loimology will not be on the agenda.

Stay tuned for updates.