CHAPTER III
PESTILENT FEVERS

I will now proceed to speak of fevers called pestilent, some of
which are nearly always fatal and are called 'truly pestilent';
others are often fatal, and are called 'malignant', though both
kinds are usually described by the general term 'pestilent'.
These fevers must be studied with the greatest care, for it is
generally believed that they have each one its particular charac—
ter, demanding a particular treatment. What is this particu—
lar character? I have never yet seen it clearly defined.  Some
writers extricate themselves from this difficulty by a short cut,
and fall back on occult properties, but in the above pages I
have discussed these properties at some length,* and I shall
not vainly repeat myself in the manner of persons who talk and
teach nonsense and try to solve difficult problems by means of
an unknown. .

Galen? sometimes seems to assert that pestilent fevers have
a certain poisonous quality, and that in this they differ from
other fevers. Sometimes, he says, they have this peculiarity,
namely a putrefaction about the heart, now in its substance,
now in its contents. On this point it is fair to ask for an ex—
planation, for Galen does not state what he means by this poison—
ous quality, nor again, whether he means an actual poison or
rather a similar manner of causing death. But if he means
actually a poisonous quality, he ought to have told us in what
it consists; for poisons kill either by material or by spiritual
qualities. As for his assertion that the peculiarity of these
fevers is that they cause to putrefy either the substance of the
heart or its contents, there again he makes a very dubious state—
ment.

On this subject Montanus,'? a leading citizen of my own
Verona, an authority beyond praise on the science of medicine,—
a man into whose body,if I may speak like a Pythagorean,

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