The Predicted Plague

What it is

This is a book published in 1900 under the pseudonym Hippocrates Junior. Its full title is The Predicted Plague, Planetary and Atmospheric Influences Considered as Cause of Black Death and Other Plagues. The copy in this archive is held by the University of California, San Diego library, and the record lists the subjects as plague, astrology and epidemics. The book discusses comets and plagues over two thousand years and also includes material about Queen Elizabeth and her astrologer.

Why it matters

The Black Death was a 14th-century pandemic, and people at the time and later tried to explain why it happened. This book is a later explanation based on astrology, which modern medicine does not support. It shows how people in 1900 still looked to the stars for answers about disease, and it connects the Black Death to a long tradition of theories about plague.

Look closer

• What cause does the author propose for the Black Death, and what evidence does the book seem to use?
• Why might a book from 1900 choose to discuss the Black Death at all?
• What does the book leave out, such as the medical explanations that were available by 1900?