EBOOK Sick Child in Early Modern England, 1580-1720

The Sick Child in Early Modern England is a powerful exploration of the treatment,        perception, and experience of illness in childhood, from the late sixteenth to the        early eighteenth century. At this time, the sickness or death of a child was a        common occurrence - over a quarter of young people died before the age of fifteen -        and yet this subject has received little scholarly attention.Hannah Newton takes        three perspectives: first, she investigates medical understandings and treatments of        children. She argues that a concept of 'children's physic' existed amongst doctors        and laypeople: the young were thought to be physiologically distinct, and in need of        special medicines. Secondly, she examines the family's' experience, demonstrating        that parents devoted considerable time and effort to the care of their sick        offspring, and experienced feelings of devastating grief upon theirillnesses and        deaths. Thirdly, she takes the strikingly original viewpoint of sick children        themselves, offering rare and intimate insights into the emotional, spiritual,        physical, and social dimensions of sickness, pain, and death.Newton asserts that        children's experiences were characterised by profound ambivalence: whilst young        patients were often tormented by feelings of guilt, fears of hell, and physical        pain, sickness could also be emotionally and spiritually uplifting, and invited much        attention and love from parents. Drawing on a wide array of printed and archival        sources, The Sick Child is of vital interest to scholars working in the        interconnected fields of the history of medicine, childhood, parenthood,bodies,        emotion, pain, death, religion, and gender.