22 Introduction 



practised quite early. Theodoric, of Bologne, about 1260 

 taught that the action of the air upon wounds induced a 

 pathologic condition predisposing to suppuration. He also 

 treated wounds with hot wine fomentations. The wine 

 was feebly antiseptic, kept the surface free from bacteria, 

 and the treatment was, in consequence, a modification of 

 what in later centuries formed antiseptic surgery. 



Henri de Monde ville in 1306 went even further than 

 Theodoric, whom he followed, and taught the necessity 

 of bringing the edges of a wound together, covered it with 

 an exclusive plaster compounded of turpentine, resin, and 

 wax, and then applied the hot wine fomentation. 



In 1546 Geronimo Fracastorius published at Venice a 

 work " De contagione et contagiosis morbis et curatione," in 

 which he divided infectious diseases into 



1. Those infecting by immediate contact (true contagions). 



2. Those infecting through intermediate agents, such as 

 fomites. 



3. Those infecting at a distance or through the air; he 

 mentions as belonging to this class phthisis, the pestilential 

 fevers, and a certain kind of ophthalmia (conjunctivitis). 



" In his account of the true nature of disease germs, or 

 seminaria contagionum, ... he describes them as particles 

 too small to be apprehended by our senses, but as capable in 

 appropriate media of reproduction, and in this way of in- 

 fecting surrounding tissues. 



" These pathogenic units Fracastorius supposed to be of 

 the nature of colloidal systems, for if they were not viscous 

 or glutinous by nature they could not be transmitted by fo- 

 mites. Germs transmitting disease at a distance must be able 

 to live in the air a certain length of time, and this condition 

 lie holds is possible only when the germs are gelatinous or 

 colloidal systems, for only hard, inert, discrete particles 

 could endure longer. 



" Fracastorius conceived that the germs became pathogenic 

 through the action of animal heat, and in order to produce 

 disease it is not necessary that they should undergo dissolu- 

 tion, but only metabolic change."* 



In 1671 Kircher wrote a book in which he expressed the 



opinion that puerperal fever, purpura, measles, and various 



other fevers were the result of a putrefaction caused by 



worms or animalcules. His opinions were thought by his 



*"Brit. Med. Jour.," May 7, 1910, p. 1122. 



