[The identification of causes of death in preindustrial Europe: some historiographical considerations].

Abstract

"This article deals with some of the historiographical issues raised by the study of the causes of death in the past. It is focused upon the medical causes of death, particularly infectious diseases.... The ways of facing the question of the causes of death in pre-industrial Europe...are examined in contrast to those ways peculiar to modern Europe. Three topics are successively dealt with, first, the process of 'medicalisation' of death; secondly, diseases as causes of death, and the nosological systems; and thirdly, the diagnosis of the causes of death." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE)