ABSTRACT
The spread of this kind of deadly disease is unlikely today, although not because we have become more charitable and not because epidemics no longer arise (HIV-AlDS is an obvious example). Rather, people are less exposed to such acute diseases as typhus, tuberculosis, whooping cough, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, cholera, typhoid, and bubonic plague. Acute diseases are health problems of less than three months' duration that restrict activity. The lessened impact of acute diseases is a new phenomenon in history. In Carlyle's time-and indeed for most of human existence-high exposure to toxins and pervasive malnourishment (which increased susceptibility) meant that typhus, tuberculosis, and other illnesses swept through towns, killing large numbers. Most people lived hard lives and, like the Irish widow, died young. Yet as described in Chapter 8, this age-old pattern began changing in the nineteenth century. People are healthier now and live longer. Today we do not fear epidemics of tuberculosis, the leading cause of death 100 years ago, since it is now easily prevented.
