I wanted to add a few comments about this Internet publication of my 1976 Thesis, Life From Death: A Study Of The Plague of 1348-1350 And Its Effect On Medieval England. The Idea of putting my thesis online came to me in October of this year, 1998. One of the people I correspond with on the Internet expressed interest in epidemiology and disease control. I mentioned my thesis, and subsequently began to search the Net for information on Plague. I found several sources, but none with a bibliography as extensive as mine. I have always found the subject to be very interesting. Since I already edit three Webpages, I thought it would be fun to try my hand at publishing my thesis. It also might just help someone looking for information about Plague.
I certainly didn't want to retype my thesis. I remember the laborious hours I spent typing and retyping the original. I decided to scan the text. However, this process is not a breeze. Once scanned, I needed to edit the text. The original text had footnotes at the bottom of each page. I converted the whole document to the MLA system. I then had to run it through a spell check. I was appalled at how many spelling errors there were (my professor had said there were only four errors in the entire text). Then there were the hyphens. Remember hyphens? I had used them frequently at the end of typewritten sentences-well, they had to go. Then there was the HTML formatting. It was quite a learning process.
I would like to say a few words about some technical features or problems. Several of my sources were in French. I must confess I don't know how to add accents or diacritical marks to HTML text, therefore, these markings are absent from quotations in French. Also, I have tried to use Italics for non-English words. If I have missed some please let me know. If I missed any of those hyphens, please let me know.
I hope you enjoy Life From Death. If you have any questions, comments, or information, please E-mail me. I would like to hear from you.
I would also, once again, like to thank my wife for her encouragement and patience.
© 1998
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