English diseasen.

1609 T. Dekker Ravens Almanacke sig. B2^v To those that shal be whipped either with French birch, or be strucke with any English disease, the shortest day in winter..shall seeme more teadious..thyn Saint Barnabies day.

1744 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Feb. xvi. 97 This non-paril Root..delivers the eater from the fatal Effects of the English disease, the Scurvy.

1831 Times 10 Nov. 3/6 The discharges in the Indian disease consist of a liquid resembling thin gruel: in the English disease they are feculent and bilious.

1871 C. H. Hackley tr. T. Billroth Gen. Surg. Pathol. & Therapeutics xvi. 451 It [sc. rachitis] was often called ‘English disease’.

1939 J. C. Drummond & A. Wilbraham Englishman's Food viii. 182 Rickets..came to be generally known on the Continent as ‘The English Disease’ (Die englische Krankheit).

1990 Lancet 10 Feb. 343/1 Before we cleaned up our air in the 1960s chronic bronchitis was known as the ‘English disease’.

2004 D. N. Leeson Opus Ultimum 42 ‘The English Disease’, a term..used for rickets (a disease caused by a vitamin D deficiency).

a1691 R. Baxter Reliquæ Baxterianæ (1696) iii. 169 It cannot, with any true reason, be supposed to tie us at all to the Bishops—much less to the English Disease or Corruption of Episcopacy.

1823 T. Dwight Trav. New Eng. IV. 263 He must from his birth be supposed to be infected with the English disease of finding fault with the language of Americans.

1845 Gentleman's Mag. Oct. 346 In society he does not appear to advantage, troubled with that strange English disease, the aping of fine company.

1962 Time (U.S. ed.) 19 Oct. 25/3 Across Britain last week, the symptoms of what other Europeans call ‘the English disease’ were alarming... So far this year, Britain has had 2,000-odd strikes.

1969 Physics Bull. Apr. 132/1 British industry suffered grievously from the re-establishment of the university-industry barrier in the years that followed the war. It..is, perhaps, one of the symptoms of the socalled ‘English disease’ in economics.

1970 B. Levin Pendulum Years ix. 149 The ‘English disease’ can be defined in a dozen different ways, and has been, but they have in common that irreducible minimum of amateurism that seems to cling to matters British.

2004 J. Jupp Eng. in Austral. vi. 154 Three areas of concern were the hostel strikes, the White Australia policy and claims that the ‘English disease’ of industrial militancy had been introduced by immigrant shop stewards.