Indexes

Our approach to indexing this work was guided, in part, by the desire to make available substantive information that seemed best omitted in the text. As a consequence, the Name Index gives a brief bio­graphical sketch, including dates of birth and death, for each (normally pre-twentieth-century) figure of prominence in the history of medicine who is men­tioned by more than one of our authors.

Yet this work is less a history of medicine than it is the history (and geography) of human disease promised by the title, and it is this promise that dictates the primary focus of the Subject Index. This index first divides the globe into its major regions and then subdivides these regions geographically and chronologically so that, for example, the dis­eases of Japan in the premodern period are found listed alphabetically under Asia, East, Japan, pre­modem.

If, however, the reader is interested only in small­pox in premodern Japan, then the smallpox entry in the Subject Index may also be consulted, where a chronology of epidemics during the period in ques­tion is provided along with a listing of the outbreaks of this disease noted by our authors in every portion of the globe, from its earliest recorded appearance to the most recently reported cases.

Other areas of interest, such as the history of medi­cine or infant mortality or public health, can be ac­cessed through topical entries such as medicine and medical history; mortality, infant; and public health and sanitation. In addition, in the Subject Index we have provided cross-referencing among topics cov­ered in the text, and we have also attempted to in­clude, whenever possible, synonyms that have been used historically for modern diseases.