Like AIDS today, venereal disease existed in epidemical proportions in eighteenth-century Britain and France. Medical practitioners of every stripe - legitimate and otherwise - knew little but wrote volumes about its origins, symptoms, and "cures." The pathology of the disease remained elusive throughout the century despite frequent and loud debates on the topic in the press.

The essays in this collection paint a portrait of the secret malady - public and private responses to the epidemic; changing attitudes toward the disease; and its role in making sex a taboo subject, in enforcing class and racial distinctions, and in raising the level of misogyny. The interdisciplinary nature of the collection makes this an important and fascinating work for scholars in several fields, including history, art, literature, the history of medicine, and women's studies.