I will cheerfully admit that I had forgotten about the great plague but I would point out that isolated healthy populations can be particularly vulnerable to a newv disease as has been shown in our own world when local populations have been destroyed by diseases unwittingly imported by colonists and conquerors, to whom the same disease was far less lethal because they had established some immunity
I do wonder that given their healthy appetites and supply of vittles the no one was ill refers more to the relatively minor indispositions that accompany over indulgence rather than serious illness. I would have to check this out but my memory (which we have already established is imperfect)
cannot recall any specific hobbit being ill other than Frodo and nor any mention of any hobbit skilled in healing. Though didn't Bilbo give the gaffer some liniment for his arthritis - which was surely given his age and occupation osteo arthritis causes by "wear and tear". I would point out that by saying "not prone to illness generally " I didn't mean that I thought Hobbits had an elvish imperviousness to illness and age. There is a difference.
I doubt that the modern lifestyle police would approve of the hobbits calorie intake and attitude that it was unhealthy to be lean either .... nor of the consumption of more than a few glasses of old winyards a week for the sake of one's heart...
As for Tolkien himself - smoking can exacerbate stomach ulcers and he did (according to Carpenter) hope to match his longlived Suffield (?) relatives.
So pipe smoking is not a good idea either (so saith Auntie Mith). Oral cancer is not fun and pipe smokers also shorten their life expectancy by being irritating and tapping the wretched things out. I am sure strangulation is a major cause of death amongst them...
