Editing Sweating sickness (section)

== Signs and symptoms ==
[[John Caius]] was a physician in [[Shrewsbury]] in 1551, when an outbreak occurred, and he described the symptoms and signs of the disease in ''A Boke or Counseill Against the Disease Commonly Called the Sweate, or Sweatyng Sicknesse'' (1552), which is the main historical source of knowledge of the disease. It began [[fulminant|very suddenly]] with a sense of apprehension, followed by cold shivers (sometimes very violent), dizziness, headache, and severe pains in the neck, shoulders, and limbs, with great exhaustion. The cold stage lasted from half an hour to three hours, after which the hot and sweating stage began. The characteristic sweat broke out suddenly without any obvious cause. A sense of heat, headache, delirium, [[tachycardia|rapid pulse]], and intense thirst accompanied the sweat. [[Palpitations]] and pain in the heart were frequent symptoms. No skin eruptions were noted by observers.  In the final stages there was either general exhaustion and collapse, or an irresistible urge to sleep, which Caius thought was fatal if the patient were permitted to give way to it. One attack of the disease did not result in immunity to subsequent occurrences, and some people suffered several bouts before dying.<ref name=Heyman2014>{{cite journal|author1=Heyman P. |author2=Simons L. |author3=Cochez, C. |title=Were the English Sweating Sickness and the Picardy Sweat Caused by Hantaviruses?|journal= Viruses|date= 2014|volume=6|number=1|pages=151–171|doi=10.3390/v6010151|pmid=24402305 |pmc=3917436|doi-access=free}}</ref> The disease typically lasted through one full day before recovery or death took place.<ref name="Heyman 2014b">{{Cite journal|last1=Heyman|first1=Paul|last2=Simons|first2=Leopold|last3=Cochez|first3=Christel|date=January 2014|title=Were the English Sweating Sickness and the Picardy Sweat Caused by Hantaviruses?|journal=Viruses|language=en|volume=6|issue=1|pages=151–171|doi=10.3390/v6010151|pmid=24402305|pmc=3917436|doi-access=free}}</ref> The disease tended to occur in summer and early autumn.

Thomas Forestier, a physician during the first outbreak, provided a written account of his own experiences with the sweating sickness in 1485.<ref name="Thwaites 1997" /> Forestier put great emphasis on the sudden breathlessness commonly associated with the final hours of sufferers.<ref name="Thwaites 1997" /> Forestier claimed in an account written for other physicians that "loathsome vapours" had congregated around the heart and lungs.<ref name="Thwaites 1997" /> His observations point towards a pulmonary component of the disease.<ref name="Thwaites 1997" />