The real knowledge of an age is shown only in the
archives of its literature. Here alone the genius of truth speaks
audibly--here alone men of talent deposit the results of their
experience and reflection without vanity or a selfish object.
There is no ground for believing that in the fourteenth century
men of this kind were publicly questioned regarding their views;
and it is, therefore, the more necessary that impartial history
should take up their cause, and do justice to their merits.
The first notice on this subject is due to a very celebrated
teacher in Perugia, Gentilis of Foligno, who, on the 18th of June,
1348, fell a sacrifice to the plague, in the faithful discharge of
his duty. Attached to Arabian doctrines, and to the universally
respected Galen, he, in common with all his contemporaries,
believed in a putrid corruption of the blood in the lungs and in
the heart, which was occasioned by the pestilential atmosphere,
and was forthwith communicated to the whole body. He thought,
therefore, that everything depended upon a sufficient purification
of the air, by means of large blazing fires of odoriferous wood,
in the vicinity of the healthy as well as of the sick, and also
upon an appropriate manner of living, so that the putridity might
not overpower the diseased.
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