Etiologia moru w świetle pism loimografi cznych. Fizjologia timor pestis (rekonesans badawczy)

Abstrakt

In the early modern medical discourse one of the most important factors of plague’s emergence was fear. Yet, it was not perceived in the so called idealistic way as an immaterial emotion or state of soul lacking its physical substrate but as a material process, i.e. affect. Uncontrolled fear evoked by sensual perception or thought focusing on the object of fear could result in (sometimes irreversible) alteration of both: body and spirit. According to the contemporaries, only the disciplined mind could protect from the change.