author
Nathaniel Hodges
1629–1688
Best known for staying in London to treat patients during the Great Plague of 1665, this English physician left one of the most vivid firsthand accounts of the epidemic. His work blends medical observation, personal courage, and a close view of a city in crisis.
1 Audiobook
Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665 With Precautionary Directions Against the Like Contagion
by Nathaniel Hodges, John Quincy
About the author
Born in Kensington in 1629, Nathaniel Hodges was an English physician educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He became known above all for his work during the Great Plague of London, when he continued treating the sick while many others fled the city.
Hodges is remembered for Loimologia, his account of the 1665 plague, first published in Latin in 1672 and later translated into English. The book combines eyewitness reporting with medical advice, making it both a historical record and an early attempt to explain how epidemic disease spread and how people might protect themselves.
He died in 1688, but his reputation has lasted because his writing preserves the human reality of plague as well as the medical thinking of his time. For listeners interested in London history, early medicine, or firsthand accounts of catastrophe, his work remains strikingly immediate.