登陆注册
5190700000028

第28章 PHYSICIANS(6)

He delivered his sentiments on blood-letting with sagacity, as an experienced physician; yet he was unable, as may be imagined, to moderate the desire for bleeding shown by the ignorant monks.He was averse to draw blood from the veins of patients under fourteen years of age; but counteracted inflammatory excitement in them by cupping, and endeavoured to moderate the inflammation of the tumid glands by leeches.Most of those who were bled, died; he therefore reserved this remedy for the plethoric; especially for the papal courtiers and the hypocritical priests, whom he saw gratifying their sensual desires, and imitating Epicurus, whilst they pompously pretended to follow Christ.He recommended burning the boils with a red-hot iron only in the plague without fever, which occurred in single cases; and was always ready to correct those over-hasty surgeons who, with fire and violent remedies, did irremediable injury to their patients.Michael Savonarola, professor in Ferrara (1462), reasoning on the susceptibility of the human frame to the influence of pestilential infection, as the cause of such various modifications of disease, expresses himself as a modern physician would on this point; and an adoption of the principle of contagion was the foundation of his definition of the plague.No less worthy of observation are the views of the celebrated Valescus of Taranta, who, during the final visitation of the Black Death, in 1382, practised as a physician at Montpellier, and handed down to posterity what has been repeated in innumerable treatises on plague, which were written during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Of all these notions and views regarding the plague, whose development we have represented, there are two especially, which are prominent in historical importance:- 1st, The opinion of learned physicians, that the pestilence, or epidemic constitution, is the parent of various kinds of disease; that the plague sometimes, indeed, but by no means always, originates from it:

that, to speak in the language of the moderns, the pestilence bears the same relation to contagion that a predisposing cause does to an occasional cause; and 2ndly, the universal conviction of the contagious power of that disease.

Contagion gradually attracted more notice: it was thought that in it the most powerful occasional cause might be avoided; the possibility of protecting whole cities by separation became gradually more evident; and so horrifying was the recollection of the eventful year of the "Great Mortality," that before the close of the fourteenth century, ere the ill effects of the Black Plague had ceased, nations endeavoured to guard against the return of this enemy by an earnest and effectual defence.

The first regulation which was issued for this purpose, originated with Viscount Bernabo, and is dated the 17th January, 1374.

"Every plague-patient was to be taken out of the city into the fields, there to die or to recover.Those who attended upon a plague-patient, were to remain apart for ten days before they again associated with anybody.The priests were to examine the diseased, and point out to special commissioners the persons infected, under punishment of the confiscation of their goods and of being burned alive.Whoever imported the plague, the state condemned his goods to confiscation.Finally, none except those who were appointed for that purpose were to attend plague-patients, under penalty of death and confiscation.

These orders, in correspondence with the spirit of the fourteenth century, are sufficiently decided to indicate a recollection of the good effects of confinement, and of keeping at a distance those suspected of having plague.It was said that Milan itself, by a rigorous barricade of three houses in which the plague had broken out, maintained itself free from the "Great Mortality" for a considerable time; and examples of the preservation of individual families, by means of a strict separation, were certainly very frequent.That these orders must have caused universal affliction from their uncommon severity, as we know to have been especially the case in the city of Reggio, may be easily conceived; but Bernabo did not suffer himself to be deterred from his purpose by fear--on the contrary, when the plague returned in the year 1383, he forbade the admission of people from infected places into his territories on pain of death.We have now, it is true, no account how far he succeeded; yet it is to be supposed that he arrested the disease, for it had long lost the property of the Black Death, to spread abroad in the air the contagious matter which proceeded from the lungs, charged with putridity, and to taint the atmosphere of whole cities by the vast numbers of the sick.Now that it had resumed its milder form, so that it infected only by contact, it admitted being confined within individual dwellings, as easily as in modern times.

Bernabo's example was imitated; nor was there any century more appropriate for recommending to governments strong regulations against the plague that the fourteenth; for when it broke out in Italy, in the year 1399, and still demanded new victims, it was for the sixteenth time, without reckoning frequent visitations of measles and small-pox.In this same year, Viscount John, in milder terms than his predecessor, ordered that no stranger should be admitted from infected places, and that the city gates should be strictly guarded.Infected houses were to be ventilated for at least eight or ten days, and purified from noxious vapours by fires, and by fumigations with balsamic and aromatic substances.

同类推荐
  • LAHOMA

    LAHOMA

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 除一切疾病陀罗尼经

    除一切疾病陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 安乐集

    安乐集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 兼明书

    兼明书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 绮楼重梦

    绮楼重梦

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 舌尖上的求生游戏

    舌尖上的求生游戏

    将传说中的魔物做成美味的食物吧! 今日特色菜: 【地狱佛跳墙】 由飞天水螅、克苏鲁触须尖、深潜者的掌蹼、兰·提戈斯的蟹钳角质层,黑山羊母神的触须尖,阿撒托斯化身之眼屎;素菜如帝王迷幻菇、炎之精、犹格泡泡、奈亚拉托提普的体液、星之彩影响下的变异蔬菜。三十多种原料与辅料分别加工烹饪而成。(菜谱随着本文进度变化)……这是一个死人的世界,只有不断穿梭于各种诡秘世界做任务,才能维持得了生存这样子。在别人在魔物与恶灵的威胁下瑟瑟发抖时,唐元首先想的却是:它能不能吃……原创副本+游戏副本+黑暗料理解谜逃生向。 欢迎加入书友群:429278979
  • 总裁的复仇前妻

    总裁的复仇前妻

    “把你的眼睛还给雨唯!”曾经那么坚定的对自己说要给她一世安定的男人现在居然为了另外一个女人对她百般残忍。爱不得,求不得,当心渐凉,往日的深情不过只是笑话一场。抛掉过去,忘记怯弱,七年后,阎氏总裁阎默的婚礼上,遽然惊现两个小娃,对准了正准备行礼的二人,扬言要要回自己妈咪的眼睛,一场举目惊艳的婚礼被这突如其来的两个小娃子给搅断了!
  • 在离乡

    在离乡

    本书收录了作家乡土文学的短篇散文精品,清新隽永,带您一窥原生态的文字美景。
  • 红女王

    红女王

    《玫瑰战争》系列之一,菲利帕·格里高利代表作品,背景为英国玫瑰战争时期,主要描写在两大家族斗争中起过关键作用的女性的故事。《红女王》的主角为被称为都铎王朝之母的玛格丽特·博福特,她幼时拥有美好幻想且十分虔诚,但在政斗中一步步走向心理扭曲,开始不惜一切代价地追逐权力,最后用尽手段将自己的儿子推上了英格兰王位。
  • 暗恋情事

    暗恋情事

    18岁她遇见他一见钟情,满心欢喜28岁他们克服了重重阻碍步入了婚姻殿堂她与他终成正果我原以为,喜欢你只有一瞬间的事,可是我却坚持了一生。
  • 咒印巫师

    咒印巫师

    努力改变出身,知识改变未来,我将撬动命运的天平!诸神黄昏,由我展开!
  • 北山酒经

    北山酒经

    《北山酒经》是宋朝的一本讲述酒的书籍。《北山酒经》是宋代酒文献的力作,全书分上、中、下三卷。上卷为总论,论酒的发展历史;中卷论制曲;下卷记造酒,是中国古代皎早全面、完整地论述有关酒的著述。
  • 傲世玄神

    傲世玄神

    《无尽神皇》,欢迎大家收藏。已经六十万字,放心阅读!http://m.wkkk.net/m.wkkk.net二十一世纪的一代至尊杀手在抢夺一块神秘古玉之时,遭隐士高手围杀,最后随着古玉穿越到异世圣元大陆。谁知穿越后竟是成为了一个被称作为废材的叶家三代子孙叶枫。神秘古玉内含神秘玉灵,传叶枫亘古神功《破天诀》,一改废材之名。痛扁曾经欺辱他的人,妖孽般的修炼速度令家人和敌人惊颤万分。后来得万年天地神兵九玄剑,再其家族灭亡之际,杀意宛如深渊魔云,领悟九玄之一得杀之玄。报血仇,走上凝聚九玄之路。出世俗,进宗派,入圣地,亦不是他的终点。一人一剑,破尽各方高手,让所谓的天才埋头惭愧。灭神九杀,神鬼惊颤,成就至尊玄神之名,傲世天地。http://m.wkkk.net/m.wkkk.net好友风趣文,生活写照,介绍个大家
  • 古林如禅师语录

    古林如禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 觅音传情两相宜

    觅音传情两相宜

    槐树夫妇:林怀瑾、复苏。音乐才子苦追知名女作家多年,屡战屡败、越挫越勇。为她写歌、请她合作,在演唱会对她公开表白,在情人节给她浪漫惊喜。面对众多情敌,他更是高调宣扬:“她是我的人!”奈何他一片真心换绝情,佳人不仅避他如洪水猛兽,还要抄出菜刀逼他退后:“别过来,离我远点!”桀骜不驯VS清高理性,偏执,治愈,破镜重圆。