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In The Great Pox: The French Disease in Renaissance Europe (Yale University
Press, £25, ISBN 0 300 06934 0), Jon Arrizabalaga, John Henderson and
Roger French examine the documentary evidence of Renaissance physicians coming
to terms with the sudden onslaught of syphilis—and according to this
survey, their main problem was finding a name for it. There is little on the
social effects of this devastating disease, and a complete absence of anecdotes.
For such a subject in such a period, this is an embarrassingly dull medical
history.