From a social history viewpoint, this book examines the impact of disease upon English people, and responses to sickness, lay and medical alike. Its chronology, roughly 1550–1860, spans early modern times and the first century of industrial society; this allows questions to be asked both about enduring traditions and about change – for instance, the impact of rapid urbanisation upon the people's health [120]. It broaches certain issues that are primarily demographic, by asking what part disease and medicine played in bringing about adjustments in population levels and profiles. It touches upon socioeconomic history, by examining the wealth and professional power of medical practitioners. And it asks some questions germane to the administrative or political historian: what role did the state play in promoting public health? But it is not chiefly any of these – nor is it a reassessment of the roots of the welfare state or of the National Health Service [109; 124]. Its main concern lies rather with responses – social, religious and medical a like – to sickness and to threats of death. Central to that story is an assessment of changing relations between the people at large and the medical profession.

In its organisation, this pamphlet attempts to combine thematic and chronological approaches. The first chapter briefly sketches the ‘biological ancien régime’ as it affected English society between Tudor times and the surge of industrialisation. How severe were the threats disease posed to the population at large and to the social fabric? Did medicine offer any real defences against disease? Chapter 2 then focuses upon the social presence of medicine in pre–industrial England.