page_title: Scrutinium Physico-Medicum
section_title: Kircher's theories
hierarchical_section_title: Scrutinium Physico-Medicum / Kircher's theories
caption_attribution_description: The bubonic plague described by Athanasius Kircher
context_page_description: Scrutinium Physico-Medicum Contagiosae Luis, Quae Pestis Dicitur is a 1658 work by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, containing his observations and theories about the bubonic plague that struck Rome in the summer of 1656. Kircher was the first person to view infected blood through a microscope, and his observations are described in the book. The work was printed on the presses of Vitale Mascardi and dedicated to Pope Alexander VII.
context_section_description: Kircher summarised  three possible explanations for the plague.  The first was the hermetic approaches of Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa, the second was the moral explanation for disease, and the third was medical.  Kircher agreed that God did send tribulations to afflict mankind, but was most interested in medical research. In Scrutinium Physico-Medicum Kircher discussed spontaneous generation as the source of the 'worms' which caused the plague, describing experiments he did with rotting meat and with a mixture of soil and water, which produced microscopic creatures. His conclusion was that "plague in general is a living thing" and that it was transmitted by contact from one person to another.
  Kircher theorised that when the ground was opened by caves and fissures, myriads of tiny creatures escaped that carried putrefaction and infected first plants, then the animals that ate them, and eventually, people. Once these creatures infected the human body, they drove out its natural heat.  Once the body was chilled, the four humours were overwhelmed with putrefaction, and the victim began spreading disease in their breath.
  Kircher recommended the wearing of a dead toad around the neck as a prophylactic against the plague, because he maintained that toads were a scientifically proven magnet attracting the unpleasant vapours that spread the disease.
caption: The bubonic plague by Athanasius Kircher
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