This statement is borne out by a manuscript in the British Museum (Additional MSS. 27582) written byThomas Forestier, a doctor of medicine belonging to Normandy who was resident in London at the time. Soon afterwards he seems to have removed to Rouen, where, probably in 149 1, was published a Latin work by him on the plague, entitled: "Tractatvs contra pestilentiam thenasmonem et dissenteriam." In the latter work he names the 19th of September, 1485, as the date of the commencement of the sweating sickness. Other authorities, whilst differing as to the day, agree in attributing its origin to the autumn of 1485.
After its first appearance the disease seems to have spread with terrible rapidity. In London Thomas Hyll the lord mayor. Sir William Stokker chosen as his successor, and several aldermen died within a few days—facts that enable us to form some idea of the extent of the mortality amongst the other classes of citizens. As the coronation of Henry VII took place with due ceremony on October 30, and Parliament met on the 7th of the following month, the departure of the disease would appear to have been as sudden as was its advent. The same suddenness that marked the general movements of the epidemic characterized the individual attacks. In the "Tractatvs contra pestilentiam, etc." Forestier says that "more than 1 5,000 persons departed this world by sudden death, as if from divine chastisement, and many died unshriven without respite, whilst walking in the streets". Whether Forestier is here speaking of the number of
