[21] Sauvel, “Histoire et recherches des antiquites de la Ville de Paris.”
[22] In the year 622, Aaron pointed out small-pox for the first time, but it was only in the year 900 that the two Arabian physicians, Rhazes and Avicenna, wrote their works on this malady and determined the clinical forms, giving the prognosis and diagnostic signs and the methods of treatment. Rhazes, physician to the hospital at Bagdad, recommended, on account of the warm climate of his country, cool and refreshing drinks. In the period of lever, he advised copious bleedings, and for children wet cupping. He covered up his patients in warm clothing, had their bodies well rubbed, and gave them a plentiful supply of ice-water to drink. In certain cases, he placed large vessels of hot water, one in front and one behind the patient, in order to facilitate the eruptive process; then the body was anointed before the sweat cooled off. He prescribed lotions for the eyes when the eruption was heavy in the ocular regions. He advised the use of gargles. He opened the pustules, when they maturated, with a golden needle, and absorbed the pus with pledgets of cotton. He gave opium for the diarrhœa and insomnia, and, when the disease declined, used mild purgatives, etc., etc.
[23] Aaron, a contemporary of Paulus d’Aegineta, speaks only briefly of the malady in his works. Rhazes mentions measles in his works, giving a clear account of its diagnosis and treatment. He says that when the patient experiences great anxiety and falls into a syncope, he should be plunged into a cold bath and then be vigorously rubbed over the skin to the end of provoking the eruption. Avicenna did not recognize measles, considering it only a billious fever or small pox. Constantine, the African, follows the example of Avicenna and reproduces the opinion of the Arabian School without comments.
[24] Johannis Philipi Ingrassiae. “De tumoribus praeter naturam.” Cap. I.
[25] Fernelli. “Universa Medico.”
[26] “Brief recit et succinte narration de la navigation faicte en ysles de Canada.” Paris, 1545.
[27] Gregory of Tours says that in Paris they had a place of refuge, where they cleaned their bodies and dressed their sores.
[28] They designated by the name of borde, bordeau, bordell, bordette, bourde, or bourdeau, a small house or cabin built on the edge of town; a cabin intended to contain lepers. The word bordell, a house of ill-fame, as used even in modern days, takes its origin from borde, an asylum for lepers.
[29] Etienne Barbazin, erudite and historian, born in 1696, author of a number of works on the History of France: “Recueil alphabetique de pieces historiques”; “Tableaux et Contes Francais, des XII., XIII., XIV., et XV. centuries”; “The Orders of Chivalry, etc.” He also left numerous manuscripts on the origin of the French language. See “Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal.”
[30] Pierre Andre Mathiole, “De Morbo Gallico.”