Book II PESTILENT FEVERS S1

or simply putrid, but hectic—pestilential and putrid—pestilen—
tial.  Their poisonous quality is merely a degree of greater putre—
faction of the heart''.

"The above is about what I saw in his writings, and, if one con—
sider it carefully, there are great difficulties involved. In the
first place, because the argument here put forward does not
explain why pestilent fevers are contagious, though this ap—
pears to be the special peculiarity associated with them. More—
over, if one asks why, in such fevers, putrefaction occurs in the
heart or its contents, he seems to say that the cause is an enor—
mous and extensive putrefaction which results in the infection
of the heart or its contents. But if one asks again why this
enormous putrefaection is produced, he replies that it is due to a&
predisposing cause, namely an excess of moisture which either
arises internally or comes from outside. But this makes the
problem no easier to solve, for in the first place, it seems re—
markable that this predisposition should exist in everyone of
ten thousand persons who die when there is a plague; especially
when we see that countless persons who are perfectly healthy
and whose humors have suffered no depravity, nevertheless
catch that contagion from merely associating with the plague—
stricken, or from his clothes. Now what is it that produced in
this case that enormous putrefaction, though there were no
obstructions to cause it, and no excess of moisture, either within
the person affected or acquired from the air? Some other
principle (primary agent), therefore, must be assigned as the
cause. Moreover, he ought to have stated what is the nature
of this enormous putrefaction; is it enormous in quantity and
mass, or in the degree of its activity?  If in its activity, why
are not pestilent fevers among those that cause the highest
temperature and delirium? Why again are those caused by
rusty (green'?) bile not pestilential? But if the putrefaction
be enormous quantitatively, why was it necessary to state that
the very heart becomes putrefied?  For that enormous quan—
tity of putrefaction would be sufficient in itself to cause this.
Another point again is obscure. If the putrefaction is so enor—
mous, why does not the patient feel feverish, whereas other fevers,
"with less putrefaction, are inflammatory? And we cannot ap—
parently have recourse to hectic fever, since, long before it be—
comes hectic, that enormous putrefaction is produced. Nay,
the very reason why the fever becomes hectic, is a putrefaction