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The essay begins by examining the representation of the plague, syphilis and smallpox in the medical tradition, before shifting its attention to the practice of maritime quarantine, as laid out by Richard Mead in his Short Discourse Concerning Pestilential Contagion Cleland is often charged with sanitising the true horrors of sex work in this period. This article proposes that if we take the time to appreciate the way infectious cutaneous diseases were believed to operate and spread we can recognise the moments in which he not only alludes to disease but invokes it for structural and thematic purposes.
The government took swift action in the form of an appeal to the physician Richard Mead. The Short Discourse was hugely popular, as evidenced by its many editions seven within the first year and translations into multiple different languages including Russian in the s. In spite of this popularity, Mead attracted critics, who argued that he was ill equipped to offer medical advice on the management of the plague as he had no first-hand knowledge of the disease.
Contagionist theory recalibrated the spatial politics of everyday life. For instance, during the plague outbreak a cordon sanitaire was imposed upon Marseille, and this was heavily policed by both the city militia and the French army. While there, Deidier conducted several experiments on dogs, whereby he lacerated the animals and rubbed bile from recently deceased plague victims into the wounds.
After being infected in this manner the dogs exhibited plague symptoms and died. These results were subsequently shared with the medical establishment in England via correspondence with the naturalist and Royal Society fellow John Woodward.
