Book II SV PHILIS 145

lieved that this contagion was carried to us from the New World
which was discovered by the Spanish voyages, for there this
malady is extremely prevalent. In proof of this, they point
to the fact that this disease first appeared among us in Italy
at the very time when that voyage had been made and trading
had been carried on with the people of that country. For this
reason too, they say, it was first observed among the Spaniards.
Accordingly, they think that in all cases this malady depends
on a contagion transmitted by one person to another. But,
as & matter of fact, although the majority of those who have
contraeted this disease have done so through contagion, never—
theless it has been observed that countless others have been
infected without any contagion per se. Moreover, it would
have been impossible that this contagion, which per se is slow
to aet and is not easily received, should have traversed so much
of the world after having been first conveyed to the Spanish
by a single fleet of ships. For it is well known that at the same
time, or nearly the same, it was observed in Spain, France,
Italy, Germany, and almost all Scythia.48 Consider also the
fact that astronomers predicted its coming some years before
it arrived, which goes far to prove that it has some other under—
lying principle than simple and direet contagion. Now, in
the first place, we ought not to be surprised that novel and un—
usual diseases appear at certain times, diseases not conveyed
from one country to another, but arising from their own peculiar
causes. For instance, in the year 1482 there broke out a cer—
tain kind of pleurisy which affected almost the whole of Italy.
And in our own times there have appeared in Italy those fevers
never before observed there, which are called enticulae?,
and have been described above. Also, in bygone years, we
have observed a contagious ophthalmia that attacked certain
countries; again, we have seen that pest which is prevalent
among cattle only and is recorded above.*? Hence it ought
not to surprise us that the French Sickness also, though not
previously known to our continent for many centuries, has
now broken out for the first time. There will come yet other
new and unusual ailments, as time brings them in its course;
just as mentagra appeared among the ancients and has never
since appeared again.ss* And this disease of which I speak,
this syphilis too will pass away and die out, but later it will be
born again and be seen again by our grandchildren, just as in