308 NOTES

scientific mind of Fracastorius, see Dedication, p. D, and Book I,
note 11.

» Galen of Pergamum (129—200 4.».).  When Fracastorius differs
from Galen, as e. g. in his treatise On ihe Causes of Criical. Days,
published in 1538, it is always with expressions of profound respect.
For other references to Galen, see Index.

ïo G. B. da Monte (Montanus), 1489—1551, the famous rival at
Verona of Fracastorius, was Professor of Medicine at Padua for
twenty years; he had studied at Ferrara under Leoniceno. His
biographer Cervetto (G. da Monie e della, medicina, Verona, 1839)
says that he inaugurated at Padua about 1543, in the hospital of S.
Francesco, the teaching of clinical medicine. : His famous Consilia,
and the Consultationes, 1559, which are extant, are a case book which
gives the names of some of his distinguished patients, including the
Harlof Montfort. Vesalius praises him highly. His De Morbo Gallico
was published in 1566 after his death; in it he opposes the theory
of the influence of the celestial bodies, and recommends for syphilis,
China root, guaiae and mercurial ointment, the latter with reserve.
He invented a Syrupus Montani, for syphilis. In the present
passage Fracastorius seems to refer to the Ezcerpta ab auditoribus
ez quotidianis praelectionibus, i. e. the notes of those who attended
Montanus daily lectures. He translated Lucian and Aetius of
Amida and seems to have been a good Greek scholar. " He died at
his villa near Verona of catarrh of the bladder. / As may be seen from
the dates of his numerous works he preferred not to publish in his
lifetime. See also Introduection, p. xvii, for his relations with Fra—
castorius.

ir At this time three kinds of fevers were usually distinguished: 1)
Ephemeral, e. g. English Sweat, 2) Putrid, which was periodic and
had critical days, 3) Hectie, i. e. of unlimited duration and usually
fatal. See the classification of fevers p. 71. In general, fevers
were 'putrid' and 'non—putrid', i. e. did not show putrescence. It
is one of the greatest merits of Fracastorius that he clearly dis—
tinguished certain kinds of fevers, before confused.

:: A£erugo is the rust of any metal, but especially of copper; the
adjective aeruginosa means *of the color of copper rust'.

15 At this time humorism', the belief, derived from Hippocrates,
in four cardinal humors, the chief fluids of the body, was universal
and practically all ailments were supposed to be due to *obstrue—
tion, plethora, or a morbid condition of the humors', a phrase con—
stantly used by Fracastorius. 'The humors, for him, were 1) the
blood, 2) phlegm, which he sometimes ealls pituita, a term which
he also uses of special secretions, 3) cholera, yellow bile, 4) melancho—
lia, blaek bile, biJis afra or nigra. "They were closely connected
with the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, and the four
'qualities!, cold, heat, dryness, wetness. *The two commonest
complaints in ancient Greece, chest troubles and malaria, suggested
as chief of these humors four: phlegm, blood (suggested by hemor— .
rhage in fevers), yellow bile and black bile (suggested by the vomits,