If we now turn to the medical talent which encountered the "Great
Mortality," the Middle Ages must stand excused, since even the
moderns are of opinion that the art of medicine is not able to
cope with the Oriental plague, and can afford deliverance from it
only under particularly favourable circumstances. We must bear in
mind, also, that human science and art appear particularly weak in
great pestilences, because they have to contend with the powers of
nature, of which they have no knowledge; and which, if they had
been, or could be, comprehended in their collective effects, would
remain uncontrollable by them, principally on account of the
disordered condition of human society. Moreover, every new plague
has its peculiarities, which are the less easily discovered on
first view because, during its ravages, fear and consternation
humble the proud spirit.

The physicians of the fourteenth century, during the Black Death,
did what human intellect could do in the actual condition of the
healing art; and their knowledge of the disease was by no means
despicable. They, like the rest of mankind, have indulged in
prejudices, and defended them, perhaps, with too much obstinacy:
some of these, however, were founded on the mode of thinking of
the age, and passed current in those days as established truths;
others continue to exist to the present hour.

Their successors in the nineteenth century ought not therefore to
vaunt too highly the pre-eminence of their knowledge, for they too
will be subjected to the severe judgment of posterity--they too
will, with reason, be accused of human weakness and want of
foresight.