Ibn al-Jazzār on sexual diseases and their treatment: a critical edition of Zād al-Musāfir wa qūt al-ḥāḍir

and medical interpretations of yellow fever. A commentary by Billy G Smith, a shrewd statistical re-creation of the epidemic by Susan E Klepp, and a discussion of the historiography of yellow fever by Margaret Humphreys round out this volume. To evaluate an edited volume always provides difficulties, given the variation of the individual contributions. Estes's chapter is valuable because it sketches eighteenth-century medical interpretations of yellow fever while at the same time summarizing contemporary knowledge. Nord's recapitulation of the role of the press in community reconstruction is less persuasive; the evidence to support his contention is lacking. Griffith provides a valuable analysis of Carey, but cannot demonstrate that his account set the stage for future responses. Miller's penetrating analysis of Rush does not take into account the long and venerable history of bloodletting (a therapy that cut across all political ideologies). Occasional errors also creep into the volume. Smith, for example, notes that such bacterial diseases as tuberculosis and polio are developing resistance to antibiotics. The latter, of course, is a viral disease and therefore not treatable by antibiotics. Such criticisms notwithstanding, A melancholy scene of devastation is an important and valuable collection that should serve to stimulate further research on the impact, response, and epidemiology of epidemic diseases.