Regardless of the age we’re living in, many of us expect illnesses to be cured within our lifetimes. Sadly, that is not often the case. Nevertheless, we can take some heart. Practically no one dies of bubonic plague now. It was one of the human race’s most terrifying adversaries for many years, and we beat it, first with a bar of soap in the sixteenth century and then with antibiotics in the twentieth. Villani might hear that news and say, in a crotchety fashion, “Well, that’s no good to me, I’m dead.” Not everyone lives to see the end of a battle.
