170 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



been properly disinfected. Breach of this regulation 

 was punishable by death, imprisonment, or the galleys. 

 Medical practitioners were compelled to notify all cases 

 of death from phthisis so that the sanitary officer might 

 give the necessary orders. For greater security secret 

 notifications were received, and those giving informa- 

 tion, authenticated with their names, to the authorities 

 were rewarded.' 



"On August 19, 1772, the Sacra Consulta of Rome 

 issued a circular to all the Papal States urging them 

 to exercise the most vigilant care to prevent the sale of 

 clothing belonging to persons who had died of that 

 'pernicious communicable disease' (phthisis). 'Medical 

 practitioners were enjoined to notify all deaths from 

 this cause, and to draw up an inventory of the things 

 which had been used by the deceased. It was expressly 

 directed that for this inventory no charge should be 

 made, and it was further provided that if it was found 

 advisable to burn any part of the belongings of the 

 dead, and a poor family was thus deprived of things 

 needful for domestic purposes, limited compensation 

 should be made.' 



" 'At Bologna, the second city of the Papal States, 

 an ordinance was issued in 1773 in which a further pro- 

 vision was made to that of the Sacra Consulta of Rome. 

 By this the introduction of clothes, linen or other things 

 used by consumptive persons into the city or its sub- 

 urbs from any other region, without an official certifi- 

 cate of disinfection, was strictly forbidden. Not only 

 physicians and surgeons, but parish priests were bound 

 to notify cases of death from phthisis, in order that the 



