ry matters. The role of the Popes in
the matter is another striking feature well worthy of note. The
significance of the success of this segregation method was lost upon
men down almost to our own time. This was unfortunately because it was
considered that most of the epidemic diseases were conveyed by the
air. They were thought infectious and due to a climatic condition
rather than contagious, that is, conveyed by actual {276} contact with
the person having the disease or something that had touched him, which
is the view now held. With the beginning of the crusade against
tuberculosis in the later nineteenth century, however, the most
encouraging factor for those engaged in it was the history of the
success of segregation methods and careful prevention of the spread of
the disease, which had been pursued against leprosy. In a word, the
lessons in sanitation and prophylaxis of the thirteenth century are
only now bearing fruit because the intervening centuries did not have
sufficient knowledge to realize their import and take advantage of
them.

Pope Innocent III. was not the only occupant of the Papal throne whose
name deserves to be remembered with benedictions in connection with
the hospital movement of the thirteenth century. His successor took up
the work of encouragement where Innocent had left it at his death, and
did much to bring about the successful accomplishment of his
intentions in the ever wider spheres. Honorius III. is distinguished
by having made into an order the Antonine Congregation of Vienna,
which was especially devoted to the care of patients suffering from
the "holy fire" and from various mutilations. The disease known as the
holy fire seems to have been what is called in modern times
erysipelas. During the Middle Ages it received various titles, such as
St. Anthony's fire, St. Francis's fire, and the like, the latter part
of the designation evidently being due to the striking redness which
characterizes the disease, and which can be compared to nothing better
than the intense erythema consequent upon a rather severe burn. This
affection was much more common in the Middle Ages than in later times,
though it must not be forgotten that its {277} disappearance has come
mainly in the last twenty-five years. It is now known to be a
contagious disease, and indeed, as Oliver Wendell Holmes pointed out
over half a century ago, may readily be carried from place to place by
the physician in attendance. It