What do rachitis, hypochondriasis and "sweating sickness" have in common?

TabbyTom

Are they all misnomers? Rachitis is a fancy name for rickets, and literally means “inflammation of the backbone.” Hypochondriasis is derived from hypochondrium (part of the abdomen), which was once thought to be the source of the condition. The “sweating sickness” that affected Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was, I think, characterized by sweating. However, there also seems to be a “sweating sickness” of cattle, which is a kind of eczema due to tick-bites. Dec 22 05, 9:57 AM

Flem-ish

Misnomers? These names are somewhat antique, but in former times they were used by doctors. A few hints: 1. all these diseases/maladies have been linked to one particular country 2. Robert Burton used the name "Melancholy" for hypochondriasis, but later in 18th century "Melancholy" was seen as typical of one particular nation 3. sweating disease is technically called "sudor" + "adjective of nationality" 4. Hamlet's "melancholy" would not be noticed if he travelled to that particular country 5. Noel Coward thought that the natives of that country had something in common with "mad dogs" going out in the midday sun 6. In my neck of the woods there is a superstition that the natives of that country tend to be thin and tall and possibly brittle of bone, in short: "rickety" Dec 22 05, 10:21 AM

TabbyTom

Ah, well, in that case it can only be England. Rickets was certainly known as “die englische Krankheit” in Germany. It was common in the children of the poor, who didn’t get much vitamin D in their diet or much sunlight. And I see that sweating sickness was also called “sudor anglicus”: perhaps it was commoner in England than in the rest of Europe. Melancholy was thought to be typically English. At some point the putative seat of the “disease” must have moved from the hypochondrium to the spleen, since the French adopted the English word “spleen” for it. I don’t know when the association between Englishmen, dogs and the midday sun was first noticed. We all know Noel Coward’s song, but the saying seems to be older. Charles Burney, writing in 1770, records the death of an English traveller in Italy: “He certainly overheated himself at Venice by walking at a season when it is said that only dogs and Englishmen are seen out of doors at noon.” Dec 22 05, 11:12 AM

Flem-ish

Interesting. It also strikes me that some of the greatest madness scenes are to be found in English literature: Ophelia; Hamlet; King Lear. And does not Richardson's Clarissa suffer from melancholy too. And then there is the "mad wife" in Jane Eyre. A technical description of the various English diseases can be found at http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/English/EnglishE.htm Dec 22 05, 1:55 PM