Think about the central ideas in "hygiene, illness, and medicine." write three to four sentences that summarize the chapter.

The main topic of the chapter is medical practices and illness in Elizabethan England.  In "Hygiene, Illness, and Medicine," Ian Mortimer points out that Elizabethan medicine was unsophisticated compared to modern medicine. A commonly held belief was that a body's humors directly affected health, so sick people were treated accordingly. Due in part to the medical practices and beliefs of the time, illnesses and diseases, such as influenza, malaria, and the plague, spread rapidly, killing thousands.