Includes bibliographical references and index.

Bubonic plague: the prototype of pandemic disasters -- The "little flies" that brought death, part 1: malaria or the burning ague -- The "little flies" that brought death, part 2: yellow fever -- Syphilis: the great pox -- The smallpox -- Cholera and the worldwide plagues of the nineteenth century -- The great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919: President Woodrow Wilson and the Blitzkatarrh

Poliomyelitis: why did Franklin Delano Roosevelt get infantile paralysis as an adult? -- Beriberi: an epidemic affecting rice-eaters -- The pellagra epidemics: the three M's produce the four D's -- Scurvy: the purpura nautica -- Dying for a cigar? how about a cigarette?: smoking and epidemic cancer: a story of two presidents and a prince -- Rickets: the English disease -- Gout: the disease of good living -- Anthrax: from woolsorter's disease to terrorism -- Botulism: from bad food to terrorism -- The SARS epidemic: a new disease retraces the experience with older diseases.