ABSTRACT
Life in the seventeenth century and for a great part of the eighteenth was uncertain in duration for a very large percentage of the population. Although the last serious outbreak of the plague had occurred, there were numerous other diseases that could terminate any person's life no matter what the age, sex or social standing of those afflicted. Society was preoccupied in that uncertain world with the danger of catching a cold, which could lead very quickly to a fever that ended in death. It is evident from reading the diary of Henry Prescott and other diaries of the same period that society on the whole was unhealthy. Living conditions in the town and the country encouraged diseases that ended in death. So long as life remained precarious then sickness could and did result in death. The survival of a great deal of folklore and folklore remedies in sickness, which eighteenth-century enthusiasts found most helpful, certainly assisted in effecting cures.
