Of all these notions and views regarding the plague, whose development we have represented, there are two especially, which are prominent in historical importance:--1st, The opinion of learned physicians, that the _pestilence_, or epidemic constitution, is the _parent of various kinds of disease_; that the plague sometimes, indeed, but by no means always, originates from it: that, to speak in the language of the moderns, _the pestilence_ bears the same relation to contagion, that a predisposing cause does to an occasional cause: and 2dly, the universal conviction of the contagious power of that disease. Contagion gradually attracted more notice: it was thought that in it, the most powerful occasional cause might be avoided; the possibility of protecting whole cities by separation, became gradually more evident; and so horrifying was the recollection of the eventful year of the “_Great Mortality_,” that before the close of the 14th century, ere the ill effects of the Black Plague had ceased, nations endeavoured to guard against the return of this enemy, by an earnest and effectual defence. The first regulation which was issued for this purpose, originated with Viscount Bernabo, and is dated the 17th Jan. 1374. “Every plague patient was to be taken out of the city into the fields, there to die or to recover. Those who attended upon a plague patient, were to remain apart for ten days, before they again associated with any body. The priests were to examine the diseased, and point out to special commissioners, the persons infected; under punishment of the confiscation of their goods, and of being burned alive. Whoever imported the plague, the state condemned his goods to confiscation. Finally, none except those who were appointed for that purpose, were to attend plague-patients, under penalty of death and confiscation.[185] [185] Chronicon Regiense, _Muratori_, Tom. XVIII. p. 82.