Disinfection : Middle Ages to 1789 : part 1

Abstract

Malta being in the centre of the Mediterranean sea has from prehistoric days been a staging post, for mariners coming from the East and North Africa to Europe, or vice versa. Its excellent harbours afforded shelter and safe anchorage from the raging seas, and the tired crews relaxed among the hospitable people, who victualed their ships, and attended to the sick. We do not know anything about any arrangements, if they existed at all for the reception of infections in our Island, in those distant times, when epidemiology had not yet developed as a special Medical science. Of course Plague, Cholera, Leprosy and Smallpox, forced the Authorities to take special measures, but even here the cause was still unknown. [excerpt]