Paper, 'Observations of the plague in Copenhagen' by John Chamberlayne

Description

Chamberlayne describes how the [Great Northern War] plague outbreak spread through Copenhagen in 1711 from the beginning of July through to the end of the year, with an estimated 25,000 fatalities. He observes that the disease affected nearly every household in the city, and that the disease was especially fatal within impoverished communities, linking this to their 'nasty manner of living', cramped living quarters, proximity to corpses, and their general belief in 'Predestination'. He suggests that coffin-makers, surgeons and shoe-makers were also disproportionately affected by the disease. He mentions that theriaca [theriac] was used as a medicine but that it proved ineffective.

Subject: Epidemiology / Communicable diseases

Published in Philosophical Transactions as 'Remarks upon the plague at Copenhagen in the year 1711'

Read to the Royal Society on 11 December 1712

Reference number

CLP/14ii/3

Earliest possible date

1712

Physical description

Ink on paper

Page extent

6 pages

Format

Manuscript