156 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



upon Palermo at the time of Frederick's marriage 

 may have been, in part at least, the occasion of 

 that interest which both the Emperor and his 

 astrologer took in the healing art. These epidemics, 

 which in several of their most fatal forms are now 

 only known by tradition, were the dreaded scourge 

 of the Middle Ages ; their prevalence being no doubt 

 due to the rude and insanitary habits of life which 

 were then universal. We read of another infectious 

 sickness which attacked Frederick and his crusaders 

 when they were on the point of sailing from Brindisi 

 in 1227. The season was one of terrible heat, so 

 great indeed that one chronicle says the rays of the 

 sun melted solid metal ! Lying in the confinement 

 of their galleys on an unhealthy coast the troops 

 suffered severely. At last rain fell, but immedi- 

 ately poisonous damps arose from the steaming soil, 

 and the plague began to show itself. Two bishops 

 and the Landgrave of Thuringia were among the 

 victims of the pestilence, and very many of the 

 crusaders died. Frederick himself ran considerable 

 risk of his life. Against the advice of his physician 

 he had exposed himself to the sun in the course of 

 his journey to Brindisi. After three days with the 

 fleet he was obliged to return on account of the 

 state of his health, when he at once went to the 

 waters at Pozzuoli, which proved a successful cure. 

 Michael Scot must have entered into these affairs 

 with a large concern and responsibility for his 

 master's health, and we shall think much of the 

 importance and consequence he enjoyed at this time 

 when we remember that the chief object of his care 

 as a physician was the life of one on whom interests 

 that were more than European then depended. 



