The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-century Britain and FranceLike AIDS today, venereal disease existed in epidemical proportions in eighteenth-century Britain and France. Medical practitioners of every stripe - legitimate and otherwise - knew little but wrote volumes about its origins, symptoms, and "cures." The pathology of the disease remained elusive throughout the century despite frequent and loud debates on the topic in the press. The essays in this collection paint a portrait of the secret malady - public and private responses to the epidemic; changing attitudes toward the disease; and its role in making sex a taboo subject, in enforcing class and racial distinctions, and in raising the level of misogyny. The interdisciplinary nature of the collection makes this an important and fascinating work for scholars in several fields, including history, art, literature, the history of medicine, and women's studies. |
Contents
Historical and Medical Contexts of Venereal Disease | 13 |
Decorums | 149 |
The Meaning of Venereal Disease | 168 |
Copyright | |
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advertised appears Betty Rizzo Bicêtre body Bully Burrows's century chancre Charles Hanbury Williams claimed clap congenital Congenital Syphilis contagion contemporary corruption cure dangerous Daniel Turner death discourse disorder Distemper doctors edition Edmond eighteenth eighteenth-century Encyclopédie erotic female France French gonorrhea Harlot's Progress Hester Thrale History of Syphilis husband infants innocent Jean Astruc Lady Le Pornographe letters libertine Lock Asylum Lock Hospital London Lord maladies vénériennes male March marriage marry Marten Mary medicine mercury Moll moral mother narrative novel ointment Paris patients Paysan perverti physicians Plate police political Pornographe practitioners Press prostitutes quack readers remedy Rétif Roy Porter Sade Sade's salivation satire secret sexual social society suffered suggest surgeons Swainson symptoms tion treat Treatise treatment ulcers Univ Ursule Vegetable Syrup Velnos's venereal disease venereal infection vérole victims Walpole wet nurses whore wife William Hogarth woman women young