The development of the doctrine of contagium vivum 1500-1750 : a preliminary sketch / by Charles Singer.

  • Charles Singer
Date:
1913
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Credit: The development of the doctrine of contagium vivum 1500-1750 : a preliminary sketch / by Charles Singer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    OF THE DOCTRINE OF CONTAGIUM VIVUM, 1500—1750. A PRELIMINARY SKETCH. The conception of living contagion is one the roots of which may be traced far back into the dawn of medicine. It has, indeed, like many other scientific ideas, appeared more than once, only to disappear again. Thus, among the classical writers of Rome and Greece, we find a distinct tradition of creatures, minute and even “ invisible,” bringing disease from marshy land. Although among these writers, the idea of contagion is usually absent, we have here, nevertheless, the basic element of our doctrine. Omitting these and other dim and isolated gropings towards the doctrine of the living nature of contagion, we pass at once to the period of the European Revival of learning. There was, in the fifteenth century, already available a rational classification of the pheno- mena of infection. Thus, in a verse of the school of Salerno, we read that, in order to escape the infection of smallpox, “children should avoid touching the contagion of the disease— viz., (1) the sick person, (2) the breath of the sick, and (3) the clothes, coverings, garments, and such clean bodies as he may have infected” (a). Here we have a clear classification of the three types of infection—by contact, at a distance, and by fomites. Such a classification was at least implied by numerous Renaissance writers, among whom we may instance Alexander Benedictus, of Yerona, 1497 (6), and Johannes Widman or Salicetus of Tubingen, 1501 (c). A third who gave a somewhat similar classification was Philip Beroaldus, in his work on “Earthquake and Pestilence” of 1510 (d). Beroaldus sets forth the degrees of contagion with some clearness, and certain passages read as though he had a dim idea of a “ contagium vivum.” The early writer, however, who, before all others, placed the theory of infectious diseases on a firm and rational foundation, was Jerome Eracastor, whose work, “ De Conta- gione,” appeared in 1546, and marked an era in the History of Medicine. It is not necessary to say anything here in detail concerning Fracastor’s work (e). He distinguished clearly the three types of infection, and established the word “fomes” in its modern sense. He differentiated a mere poison which cannot multiply itself, from an (rt) For drawing our attention to this passage we have to thank Dr. A. C. Klehs. See that author’s paper on “The Historic Evolution of Variolation.” Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin XXIV., No. 265, Martfh 1913, p. 70. ’ {h) ALESSANDRO BENEDICTO. Quinque Libri de Febribus. Liber Quintus. De Observatione in Pesti- lentia. Venice, 1497. (c) JOHANNES SALICETUS. Tractatus de Pestilentia. Tubingen, 1501. (d) PHILIPO BEROALDO. De Terremotu et Pestilentia cum Annotamentis Galeni. Addita est explicatum in Annotamentie Galeni dictionum Tabula, 1510. (e) HIERONYMO FRACASTORO. De Sympathia et Antipathia Rerum Liber Unus de Contagione et Conta- giosis Morbis et Curatione Libri III., Venice, 1546.
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