Note 40 — THE GREAT EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

“The reign of astrology,” remarks Sprengle, “led physicians to attribute the affection to the influence of the stars. Saturn who devoured his children, had, following the common expression, produced the pox. It was his conjunction with Mars, in the sign of the Virgin, that gave rise to the epidemic. Or it was the conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn in Scorpio, as in 1484. At other times it was the opposition of these two planets, as was noticed in 1494. Finally, it was the conjunction of Saturn and Mars, as in 1496. (“If it was the combined action of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the sign of the Virgin that produced the syphilis, the astrologers might well think that Mercury could destroy the effects of the disease, which would be better than bleeding or purging.”) Leonicus attributed the cause of the venereal plague to the general inundations that occurred about that period, i.e., 1493, and afterwards in 1528. Besides, they recognized as a cause of these venereal symptoms a general acridity of the humors and the pre eminence of the four cardinal humors, but more especially of a metastasis of bilious matter from the liver towards the genital organs.”