Sick of sickness! Recovering a happier history

Horrible histories are not just for young readers: adult historians also seem to have a penchant for painful tales of disaster and distress. This is especially apparent in the realm of medical history, where it has been said that before the birth of modern pharmaceutics the complete recovery of health was so rare that it barely existed as a concept.

A foray into the diaries and letters of early modern patients and their families reveals a happier history, however. Scattered amidst heartrending accounts of suffering and death, are joyful recoveries. In 1652, 11-year-old , a clergyman from Oxfordshire, described getting better as a transformation from “sicknesse to health…from sadnesse to mirth, from paine to ease, from prison to libertie, from death to life.” Patients enjoyed the blissful ease of abated pain, and cherished the freedom and sociability that came after a spell in the “lonely prison” of the sickchamber. They took pleasure in being able to carry out simple actions, which prior to illness would have generated no comment.

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