416 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



SECT. L 



The Opinion of the first Physicians concerning the Origin of 

 the French Evil. 



DURING the firfl: thirty years after the French evil 

 began to be known in Italy, there was not a fmgle au- 

 thor, as we (hall mention afterwards, who afcribed the 

 origin of it to America. All the authors who wrote up- 

 on it, before 1 525, and even fome of thofe who wrote 

 after, attributed it to different caufes, the mention of 

 which will excite the fmiles and pity of our readers. 



Some of the firfl: phyficians then living, namely, Cor- 

 radino Gillini, and Gafpare Torella, were perfuaded, 

 according to the ideas of thofe times, that the French 

 evil was occafioned by the near conjunction of the Sun 

 with Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury, in the fign of Li- 

 bra, which happened in 1483. 



Others, in agreement with the opinion of the celebrat- 

 ed Nicolaus Leonicenus (V), attributed it to the very 

 abundant rains and inundations which happened in Italy 

 that year in which the contagion began. 



G. Manardi, a learned profeflbr of the univerfity of 

 Ferrara, afcribed the origin of the evil to the impure 

 commerce of a Valentian gentleman who was leprous, 

 with a courtezan ; and Paracelfus to the commerce of 

 a French perfonwho was alfo leprous, with a proftitute. 

 Antonia Mufa Brafavola, a learned Ferrarefe, affirms, 

 that the French evil took its beginning from a courte- 

 zan, 



(c) Itaque dicimus, malum hoc, quod morhum Gallicum vulgo appellant inter 

 epidemias debere connumerari . . . Iliud fatis con flat, eo anno magnam aquarum 

 per univerfam Italiam fuiffe exuberantiam . . . seftivam autem ad illam veniffc 

 iRtemperiem calidam fcilicet & humidam, &c. OjSufc. de Morbo Gallko. 



