Not true...Europe had finally begun to recover from the Black Death of the bubonic plague in the middle 1300’s, which had killed fully half of all Europeans. Once again, Europe was ravaged by a plague now known as morbus gallicus, the French Disease. It would kill one third of the entire population of Europe.
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There seem to have been two great epidemics in England: one about 1600, and another in the late nineteenth century. The 2nd led to the inhibitions of the victorian era.