From the article you will learn what smallpox is and what types of virus can cause it. You can get acquainted with historical factstelling about the elimination of the disease. Also, the article will inform about the symptoms, methods of diagnosis and treatment of this terrible infection.

Smallpox

People could not get rid of the smallpox virus for thousands of years. Only in 1980, WHO (World Health Organization) announced the elimination of this virus in all corners of the planet and allowed to stop vaccination against it.

Smallpox is an acute infectious disease. It can be caused by two types of virus: Variola major and Variola minor. They are also known as variola or variola vera. The names are derived from varius ("spotted") or varus ("pimple").

For reference! At one time V. major caused the death of 40% of people infected with smallpox. V. minor caused a mild form of the disease, alastrim (smallpox / smallpox), which killed about 1% of those infected.

Scientists suggest that the first infection of the human body with the variola virus occurred approximately 10 thousand years BC. Proof of this is found on the mummy of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V, pustular eruptions characteristic of this type of disease.

Historical facts

• At the end of the 18th century, smallpox claimed about 400 thousand human lives in Europe, including 5 ruling monarchs.
• A third of the infected people fell victim to blindness.
• In the 18th - 19th centuries, about 60% of adults, more than 80% of children, died from infection.
• In the 20th century, smallpox killed about 500 million people.
• In 1967, 15 million people were infected, of whom 2 million died.
• After the start of vaccination (19-20 century), only in 1979, WHO confirmed the need for large-scale vaccinations, which led to the victory over smallpox.

Development mechanism

The virus enters the human body through the mucous membrane of the mouth and nose, then through the lymph nodes in which it multiplies, it enters the bloodstream.

The spread of the virus throughout the body occurs approximately 3-4 days after infection. Its strain (genus, pure culture) penetrates into the bone marrow and spleen, where it multiplies again. But even during this period, the symptoms of the disease practically do not manifest themselves.

Note! From the moment the virus enters the body, with the typical development of smallpox, the incubation period is about 12 days.

After the incubation period, the virus, once again entering the bloodstream, provokes an increase in temperature in the infected person, worsens the general state of health. A maculopapular rash appears on the patient's skin (the rash consists of dense papules of light purple or maroon color), within 2-3 days the papules are filled with liquid.

Effects

Complications that the variola virus could cause manifested themselves:

• scars on the skin, most often on the face (found in 65-85 percent of survivors);
• blindness - caused by inflammation of the cornea of \u200b\u200bthe eyes;
• deafness - the infection provoked the appearance of purulent otitis media, damaging the epithelium of the inner and middle ear;
• limb deformity - which is a consequence of arthritis and osteomyelitis caused by the smallpox virus (observed in about 2-5% of cases).

Classification and clinical features

In addition to the aforementioned clinical forms of smallpox, Variola major is the most severe and common, Variola minor is rare, less severe, there are other types of this infection, differing in varying degrees of severity.

Smallpox without rash (variola sine eruptione)

Subclinical (without severe symptoms) infection can be detected in vaccinated people. This form of the disease is characterized by the appearance of fever after the incubation period. During this period of time, the patient is observed:

• general intoxication of the body;
• myalgia (pain in the muscles of the whole body, from head to toe);
• mild pain in the sacrum (bone in the lower back, base of the spine);
• subfebrile body temperature (37.1 - 38 0 С).

It is possible to confirm the infection of the body only by studying the composition of the blood for antibodies or by isolating the virus in tissue cultures taken from the patient.

Ordinary

Common smallpox makes up 90% of all cases of the disease, it is divided into drain, semi-drain and discrete:

• Drainage rash - is formed on the skin of the face and the bends of the limbs in the form of large spots, on the rest of the body, papules are located separately. Mortality: 62% among unvaccinated and 26.3% among vaccinated patients.
• Semi-draining - papules merge together on the face, the skin of the body and limbs is covered with separate acne. The mortality rate among unvaccinated people is 37%, among patients who received the vaccine 8.4%.
• Discrete - smallpox papules are scattered all over the body, between them there is clean skin. The lethal outcome among vaccinated patients is 0.7%, among patients who have not received the vaccine - 9.3%.

Modified (varioloid)

Modified smallpox is characterized by a milder course of the disease than the ordinary type of pathology. It can also be drained, semi-drained and discrete. It develops in previously vaccinated individuals. In the first stage of the disease, symptoms are almost invisible. During the first 3-5 days, the patient has a subfebrile temperature (increased body temperature 37.1 - 38 0 C).

Rashes on the skin appear on days 2-4, at first in the form of spots, which then transform into ordinary and watery acne. Pustules (pimples with purulent contents) do not appear with this form of the disease.

The course of the disease is distinguished by its intensity and the absence of symptoms of intoxication. The mortality rate among vaccinated and unvaccinated people is 0%.

Smallpox

Severe form of the disease. Most often it occurs in unvaccinated people on the skin in the form of flat elements, as it were, drowned in the skin. A flat rash happens:

• Drain - papules merge and form areas with purulent blisters.
• Semi-draining - acne on the face as in the drainage form of the disease, papules appear separately on the rest of the body.
• Discrete - flat elements of rashes appear on any part of the body, throughout the entire skin, between them there is clean skin.

Manifestations on the skin are accompanied by a sharp intoxication of the body. Mortality among unvaccinated patients - 96.5%, among vaccinated patients - 66.7%.

Hemorrhagic (fulminant)

It is a rare, but very severe form of the disease, in which hemorrhages develop in the mucous membranes and skin. Hence the name of the disease - hemorrhage (hemorrhage).

The disease is divided into two stages:

• Early- hemorrhage in the skin and mucous membranes occurs even at the prodromal (initial) stage of the disease, before the onset of a rash. The mortality rate among unvaccinated people, as well as among patients who received the vaccine, is 100%.
• Late - hemorrhages become noticeable on the patient's skin after a rash, during the period of suppuration of pustules.

Alastrim (smallpox / whitepox)

Alastrim causes the V. minor virus. The initial stage of the pathology is characterized by an increase in body temperature, the appearance of nausea and vomiting, and a headache. On the third day, after the onset of the disease, the body temperature returns to normal, the general state of health stabilizes, but a light blistering rash appears on the skin.

The bubbles burst over time, the ulcers formed in their place are epithelized (the skin wound is closed). The second stage of the disease is absent.

Diagnostics

Mild forms of smallpox are similar to chickenpox, which requires a differential diagnosis, which will accurately establish the diagnosis and prescribe the correct treatment.

Differential diagnosis is carried out with a number of diseases, the symptoms of which coincide with signs of smallpox, among them hemorrhagic diathesis (hemorrhage under the skin and mucous membranes), toxicoderma (acute inflammation of the skin) and herpes (lifelong infection of the skin and mucous membranes).

A simple diagnosis of the disease involves:

• Examination of the skin for a characteristic rash.
• Conducting a virological study of scrapings (taken from the elements of the rash, the contents of papules, from the mucous membrane of the mouth and nasopharynx).
• MRI of the brain (to detect swelling).
• Blood donation for general analysis.

Note! If you suspect that you have been infected with the Variola virus, it is very important to see an infectious disease doctor immediately.

Because the variola virus has been destroyed, the risk of contracting it is extremely small. Currently, chickenpox is a fairly common pathology. Therefore, watch the video below and find out all about the methods of its treatment.

General principles of therapy

Smallpox treatment begins with the hospitalization of the patient. The quarantine should last 40 days, from the first symptoms of the disease. The patient is credited with:

• Bed rest - lasts until the rash disappears.
• Air baths - can reduce the feeling of itching.
• Drug treatment - drugs are prescribed for intramuscular, oral and external use (antimicrobial antibiotics, immunoglobulin, ointments for itching - see examples below).
• Sparing diet food - prescribed without fail, is table number 4.

Drug treatment

First of all, an etiotropic treatment is attributed to an infected patient (it allows to eliminate the cause of the disease, in this case we are talking about the viruses V. major and V. minor). The list of prescribed drugs contains:

• "Metisazon" is a drug in the form of tablets.
• Smallpox human immunoglobulin - intramuscular injection. (An artificial protein compound recognizes and neutralizes the virus in the body.)
• Semisynthetic penicillins - antimicrobial antibiotics ("Meticillin", "Oxacillin", "Nafcillin").
• Macrolides are antimicrobial antibiotics with a low level of toxicity ("Azithromycin").
• Cephalosporins - antibacterial drugs ("Cefixim", "Ceftibuten").

To block the mechanism of development of the disease, pathogenetic treatment is attributed with the use of vitamins, cardiovascular and antiallergic drugs, which the doctor chooses, taking into account the characteristics of the patient's body.

In order to dry the rash, a 3-5% solution of potassium permanganate is prescribed, for the treatment of the oral mucosa - a solution of sodium bicarbonate, for instilling the eyes - 15% "Sulfacil sodium". Itching is removed with 1% menthol ointment (after crusting).

Table number 4 - sample menu

• 8:00 Liquid oatmeal, non-acidic cottage cheese, herbal tea from burdock root, chamomile, marigold.
• 11:00 Blueberry compote (unsweetened).
• 13:00 Soup on chicken meat with semolina, steamed beef meatballs, rice porridge, fruit jelly.
• 15:00 Rosehip compote (drink warm for better digestibility).
• 18:00 Steamed omelet, buckwheat porridge, herbal tea.

With diet number 4, porridge should be cooked in water and consumed grated. Prohibited food: eggs in any form, fatty broth, milk, all berries and fruits, coffee, chocolate, any flour products.

Question answer

Are smallpox vaccinations being given today?

Today, such vaccinations in most countries, including the CIS, are not done, since they became optional after the disease was completely eradicated on the planet. Routine vaccinations have been preserved in Cuba and Israel, and newborns are vaccinated in Egypt.

Is there a risk of contracting the Variola major or Variola minor virus today?

In general, no. But scientists continue to view smallpox as a potentially dangerous disease. Explaining this by the fact that in laboratories located in Russia and the United States, strains of these viruses are still stored. If they are used as biological weapons, then the refusal of vaccination will result in a massive defeat for humanity.

Why do scientists store virus strains?

Firstly, the strains can serve science, and secondly, it was found that the proteins produced by the variola virus can be used to make drugs for septic shock and acute Marburg virus disease.

What to remember:

1. Smallpox is a dangerous infectious disease with serious consequences.
2. Diagnosis of the disease must necessarily include a differential analysis, which will allow you to accurately determine the causative agent of the disease and prescribe the necessary treatment.
3. Therapy for smallpox includes more than just the use of medications, but also adherence to dietary nutrition.

Disease caused by the variola virus, transmitted from person to person by airborne droplets. Patients become covered with a rash, turning into ulcers both on the skin and on the mucous membranes of the internal organs. Mortality, depending on the strain of the virus, ranges from 10 to 40 (sometimes even 70) percent.

What is the victory... Smallpox is the only infectious disease completely exterminated by humanity. The history of fighting it has no analogues.

It is not known exactly how and when this virus began to torment people, but you can vouch for several millennia of its existence. At first, smallpox spread in epidemics, but already in the Middle Ages it was registered among people on an ongoing basis. In Europe alone, one and a half million people per year died from it.

They tried to fight. As early as the 8th century, savvy Hindus realized that smallpox is ill only once in a lifetime, and then a person develops immunity to the disease. They came up with variolation - they infected healthy people from patients with a mild form: rubbed pus from the bubbles into the skin, into the nose. Variation was brought to Europe in the 18th century.

But, firstly, this vaccine was dangerous: every fiftieth patient died from it. Secondly, by infecting people with a real virus, the doctors themselves supported the foci of the disease. In general, the thing is so controversial that some countries, for example France, have officially banned it.

On May 14, 1796, the English doctor Edward Jenner rubbed into two incisions on the skin of an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps, the contents of the vials from the hand of the peasant Sarah Nelme. Sarah was sick with cowpox, a harmless disease spread from cows to humans. On July 1, the doctor inoculated the boy with smallpox, and the smallpox did not take. Since that time, the history of the destruction of smallpox on the planet began.

Vaccination with cowpox began to be practiced in many countries, and the term "vaccine" was introduced by Louis Pasteur - from the Latin vacca, "cow". Nature has given people a vaccine: the vaccinia virus provokes the body's immune response in the same way as the variola virus.

The final plan for the eradication of smallpox in the world was developed by Soviet doctors, and adopted at the Assembly of the World Health Organization in 1967. This is what the USSR can bring to itself as an unconditional asset along with the flight of Gagarin and the victory over Nazi Germany.

By that time, foci of smallpox remained in Africa, Asia and several countries in Latin America. The first stage was the most expensive, but also the easiest - to vaccinate as many people as possible. The pace was amazing. In 1974, there were 188 thousand patients in India, and already in 1975 - not a single one, the last case was registered on May 24.

The second and final stage of the struggle is finding a needle in a haystack. It was necessary to detect and suppress isolated foci of the disease and make sure that not a single person out of the billions living on Earth is sick with smallpox.

They caught the sick with the whole world. In Indonesia, they paid 5,000 rupees to anyone who brought a sick person to a doctor. In India, they gave one thousand rupees for this, which is several times more than a peasant's monthly earnings. In Africa, the Americans carried out Operation Crocodile: one hundred mobile brigades in helicopters rushed through wilderness, as ambulance... In 1976, a family of 11 nomads infected with smallpox was hunted by hundreds of doctors in helicopters and airplanes - they were found somewhere on the border of Kenya and Ethiopia.

On October 22, 1977, in the town of Marka in southern Somalia, a young man consulted a doctor complaining of headaches and fever. He was first diagnosed with malaria, and a few days later with chickenpox. However, WHO staff, after examining the patient, determined that he had smallpox. This was the last case of smallpox infection from a natural focus on the planet.

On May 8, 1980, at the 33rd session of WHO, it was officially announced that smallpox had been eradicated from the planet.

Today viruses are contained in only two laboratories: in Russia and the United States, the question of their destruction has been postponed until 2014.

02. Plague

Disease caused by the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis. Plague has two main forms: bubonic and pulmonary. The first one affects the lymph nodes, the second - the lungs. Without treatment, after a few days, fever, sepsis begins, and in most cases death occurs.

What is the victory. “The first case was noted on July 26, 2009. The patient turned to doctors in serious condition and died on July 29. 11 people who had contact with the patient were hospitalized with signs of fever, two of them died, the rest are feeling satisfactory "- approximately the way this message from China looks like now information about outbreaks of plague.

A message from some European city in 1348 would have looked like this: “In Avignon, the pestilence struck everyone, tens of thousands, none of them survived. There is no one to remove corpses from the streets. " In total, between 40 and 60 million people died during that pandemic worldwide.

The planet has survived three plague pandemics: "Justinian" in 551-580, "black death" in 1346-1353, and a pandemic of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Local epidemics also broke out periodically. The disease was fought by quarantine and - in the late pre-bacterial era - by disinfection of dwellings with carbolic acid.

The first vaccine at the end of the 19th century was created by Vladimir Khavkin - a man of a fantastic biography, an Odessa Jew, a student of Mechnikov, a former Narodnoye member, who was imprisoned three times and was expelled from Odessa University because of politics. In 1889, following Mechnikov, he emigrated to Paris, where he first got a job as a librarian and then as an assistant at the Pasteur Institute.

Khavkin's vaccine was used in tens of millions of doses around the world until the 1940s. Unlike the smallpox vaccine, it is not capable of eradicating the disease, and the indicators were much worse: it reduced the incidence by 2–5 times, and the mortality rate by 10, but it was still used because there was nothing else.

Real treatment appeared only after World War II, when Soviet doctors used the newly invented streptomycin to eradicate the plague in Manchuria in 1945-1947.

Actually, now the same streptomycin is used against the plague, and the population in the outbreaks is immunized with a live vaccine developed in the 30s.

Today up to 2.5 thousand cases of plague are registered annually. The mortality rate is 5-10%. For several decades, there have been no epidemics or large outbreaks. It is difficult to say to what extent treatment itself plays a significant role in this, and to what extent - the systemic identification of patients and their isolation. After all, the plague had left people for decades before.

03. Cholera

Disease unwashed hands. Vibrio cholerae cholerae enters the body with contaminated water or through contact with patient secretions. The disease often does not develop at all, but in 20% of cases, infected people suffer from diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration.

What is the victory. The disease was terrible. During the third cholera pandemic in Russia in 1848, according to official statistics, 1,772,439 cases were recorded, of which 690,150 were fatal. Cholera riots broke out when terrified people burned down hospitals, considering doctors to be poisoners.

This is what Nikolai Leskov wrote: “When in the summer of 1892, at the very end of the nineteenth century, cholera appeared in our country, immediately there was a difference of opinion about what to do. The doctors said that the comma should be killed, but the people thought that the doctors should be killed. It should be added that the people not only "thought" so, but they tried and put it into action. Several doctors who tried to kill the comma for the best benefit of the case were themselves killed. " The comma is Vibrio cholerae, discovered by Robert Koch in 1883.

Before the advent of antibiotics, there was no serious treatment for cholera, but the same Vladimir Khavkin in 1892 created a very decent vaccine from warmed up bacteria in Paris.

He tested it on himself and three friends, emigrants from the People's Will. Khavkin decided that even though he fled from Russia, he should help with the vaccine. If only they let me back. Pasteur himself signed a letter with a proposal to arrange a free vaccination, and Khavkin sent it to the curator of Russian science, Prince Alexander of Oldenburg.

Khavkin, as usual, was not allowed into Russia, as a result he went to India and in 1895 released a report on 42 thousand vaccinated and a 72% decrease in mortality. Now in Bombay there is a Haffkine Institute, as anyone can see by looking at the corresponding website. And the vaccine, though of a new generation, is still offered by WHO as the main remedy against cholera in its foci.

Today several hundred thousand cases of cholera are recorded annually in endemic foci. In 2010, the most cases were in Africa and Haiti. The mortality rate is 1.2%, much lower than a century ago, and this is the merit of antibiotics. However, the main thing is prevention and hygiene.

04. Ulcer

Disease lesions of the mucous membrane of the stomach and duodenum under the action of acid. Up to 15% of people on the planet suffer.

What is the victory. An ulcer has always been considered a chronic disease: if it aggravates - we will receive medical treatment, we are waiting for the next exacerbation. And they treated her, accordingly, reducing the acidity in the stomach.

Until two Australians in the early 80s of the last century turned medicine around so that opponents are still tearing each other to shreds at seminars. (By the way, this is a common phenomenon in medicine: the introduction of a new treatment has never passed without tough controversy. Fifty years after the widespread use of smallpox vaccines, for example, cartoons were still published - people with horns that grew after vaccinating with cowpox.)

Robin Warren worked as a pathologist at the Royal Perth Hospital. For many years he annoyed doctors with statements that he finds bacterial colonies in the stomachs of ulcer patients. Doctors ignored him, answering that no bacteria can multiply in acid. Maybe he would have given up if not for the stubborn young intern Barry Marshall, who came to Warren with a proposal to cultivate the bacteria and then prove their connection with the ulcer.

The experiment did not work out from the very beginning: microbes did not grow in test tubes. Accidentally they were left unattended for a long time - the Easter holidays were going on. And when the researchers returned to the laboratory, they found colonies that had grown. Marshall set up an experiment: he diluted bacteria in meat broth, drank it and came down with gastritis. He was cured with bismuth and the antibiotic metronidazole, completely destroying the bacteria in the body. The bacterium was named Helicobacter pylori.

It also turned out that half to three-quarters of all humanity are infected with Helicobacter, but not all of them cause an ulcer.

Marshall turned out to be an unusually penetrating person, he managed to break the resistance of the medical community, which was accustomed to the fact that a patient with an ulcer is a patient for life. In 2005, Australians received the Nobel Prize for their discovery.

Today the main treatment for ulcers is the elimination of Helicobacter pylori with antibiotics. However, it turned out that ulcers can also be caused by other causes, such as certain medications. The percentage of all cases associated with bacteria is still debated.

05. Tuberculosis

Disease most often nests in lungs, sometimes in bones and other organs. Cough, weight loss, body intoxication, night sweats.

What is the victory. The victory over tuberculosis is rather arbitrary. It has been 130 years since Robert Koch discovered the pathogen, the mycobacterium tuberculosis, in 1882. The first vaccine was created at the Pasteur Institute in 1921 and is still used today. This is the same BCG that newborns are vaccinated with. The degree of its protection leaves much to be desired and inexplicably varies from country to country, from clinic to clinic, to complete uselessness.

The real breakthrough came in 1943, when Zelman Waxman discovered streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis. Waxman is another Ukrainian Jewish emigrant who left for the United States in 1910. By the way, it was he who introduced the term "antibiotic". Streptomycin has been used since 1946 with consistent success, for which Waxman was awarded the Nobel Prize. But after a few years, drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis appeared, and now this antibiotic cannot be cured at all.

In the 60s, rifampicin appeared, which is still being successfully treated. On average, 87% of patients who are diagnosed for the first time worldwide are cured of tuberculosis. This, of course, is very different from the beginning of the last and the whole century before last, when doctors wrote: "Pulmonary consumption (tuberculosis) is the most widespread and most common disease." In the 19th century, every seventh inhabitant of Europe died from consumption, and statistics for less developed countries simply do not exist.

Tuberculosis is now basically curable. Schemes and antimicrobial drugs are known, if first-line therapy does not help, a backup is prescribed ... But! We look at the statistics of WHO for 2012: 8.6 million identified patients, 1.43 million died. And so from year to year.

In Russia, things are even worse: in the 90s, an uncontrolled increase in the incidence began, which peaked in 2005. Our morbidity and mortality rate is several times higher than in any developed country. About 20 thousand people die from tuberculosis in Russia every year. And yet - we are the third in the world in the so-called multidrug resistance. These types of bacteria that are not treated with first-line drugs average 3.6% worldwide. We have 23%. And 9% of them are not treated with second-line drugs. So they die.

The health care system of the USSR is to blame: patients were treated with non-standard schemes, with a margin - they were put in the hospital for a long time. But this is not the case with microbes: they are modified and become immune to drugs. In the hospital, however, such forms are gladly transferred to the ward neighbors. As a result, all countries of the former USSR are the main supplier of resistant forms of tuberculosis to the world.

Today WHO has adopted a tuberculosis control program. In less than 20 years, doctors have reduced mortality by 45%. Russia in last years also came to her senses, stopped amateur performances and accepted standard treatment protocols. 10 vaccines against tuberculosis and 10 new drugs are currently being tested in the world. However, TB is the number two disease after HIV.

06. Lepra

Disease we know it as leprosy - from "distort, disfigure." Caused by the mycobacterium Mycobacterium leprae, related to tuberculosis. It affects the skin, nervous system, disfigures a person. Leads to death.

What is the victory... Even now, at the thought of accidentally contracting leprosy, a hefty dose of adrenaline is injected into the blood of any of us. And it has always been so - for some reason it was this disease that terrified people. Probably due to its slowness and inevitability. Leprosy develops from three to forty years. Commander's steps performed by microbes.

They treated the lepers accordingly: from the early Middle Ages, they were packed in leper colony, of which there were tens of thousands in Europe, they made a symbolic burial with the words: "You are not alive, you are dead for all of us", forced to announce themselves with a bell and a rattle, killed during the Crusades , castrated, etc.

The bacterium was discovered by the Norwegian physician Gerhard Hansen in 1873. For a long time they could not cultivate it outside of a person, and this was necessary to find a treatment. Eventually, the American Sheppard began to multiply bacteria in the soles of the paws of laboratory mice. Further, the technique was improved, and then another species was found, besides the person that infects leprosy: the nine-belted armadillo.

The procession of leprosy ended in the same way as in many infections: antibiotics. Dapsone appeared in the 40s of the XX century, and rifampicin and clofazimine in the 60s. These three drugs are still included in the course of treatment. The bacterium turned out to be extremely docile, without developing resistance mechanisms: it was not for nothing that this death in the Middle Ages was called lazy.

The main antibiotic, rifampicin, was discovered by Italians Piero Sensi and Maria Teresa Timbal in 1957. They were delighted with the French gangster film Rififi, after which the drug was named. They released him to the death of bacteria in 1967.

And in 1981, WHO adopted a protocol for the treatment of leprosy: dapsone, rifampicin, clofazimine. Six months or a year, depending on the lesion. Outpatient.

Today, according to WHO statistics, leprosy is mainly affected in India, Brazil, Indonesia, Tanzania. Last year, 182 thousand people were affected. This number decreases every year. For comparison: back in 1985, more than five million were sick with leprosy.

07. Rabies

Disease caused by the Rabies virus after being bitten by a sick animal. Nerve cells are affected, after 20–90 days symptoms appear: hydrophobia, hallucinations, paralysis begin. Ends in death.

What is the victory. “The first patients he saved were so severely bitten by a mad dog that, while experimenting with them, Pasteur seemed to be able to calm himself with the thought that he was doing an experiment on people who were actually doomed to death. But only people close to him knew at what price this celebration was bought. What rises of hope, replaced by bouts of gloomy despondency, what agonizing days and painful, sleepless nights this elderly man, already exhausted by work and illness, suffered between July 6, when Professor Gransche, armed with a Pravatsev syringe, for the first time inoculated a living human being with the poison this time turned into an antidote, and on October 26, when Pasteur, having waited all the terms of possible incubation, in his usual modest form told the Academy that the cure for rabies is an accomplished fact "- this is Timiryazev's description of the first medical vaccination against rabies given by Louis Pasteur 6 July 1885 to nine-year-old Joseph Meister.

The method of curing rabies is just interesting because it was the first time. Unlike Edward Jenner, Pasteur was well aware that there was some kind of infectious agent, but he could not detect it: at that time, viruses were not yet known. But he performed the procedure perfectly - he discovered the localization of the virus in the brain, managed to cultivate it in rabbits, and found that the virus was weakened. And most importantly, I found out that the mild form of the disease develops much faster than classical rabies. This means that the body is also immunized faster.

Since then, after bites, they have been treated in this way - they will quickly immunize.

In Russia, the first vaccination station was opened, of course, in Odessa, in the laboratory of Gamaleya in 1886.

Today treatment for rabies differs little from the scheme developed by Pasteur.

08. Poliomyelitis

Disease causes a small virus Poliovirus hominis, discovered in 1909 in Austria. It infects the intestines, and in rare cases - one in 500-1000 - enters the bloodstream and from there into the spinal cord. This development causes paralysis and often death. Most often children are ill.

What is the victory. Poliomyelitis is a paradoxical disease. She overtook the developed countries because of good hygiene. In general, serious polio epidemics were not heard until the 20th century. The reason is that in underdeveloped countries, because of unsanitary conditions in infancy, children get an infection, but at the same time they get antibodies to it in their mother's milk. A natural graft comes out. And if the hygiene is good, then the infection overtakes the older person, already without the "milk" protection.

For example, several epidemics swept across the United States: in 1916, 27 thousand people, children and adults, fell ill. In New York alone, more than two thousand deaths were counted. And during the epidemic of 1921, the future President Roosevelt fell ill, who after that remained a cripple for life.

Roosevelt's disease marked the beginning of the fight against polio. He invested his funds in research and clinics, and in the 30s, the people's love for him was organized in the so-called dime march: hundreds of thousands of people sent him envelopes with coins and thus collected millions of dollars for virology.

The first vaccine was created in 1950 by Jonas Salk. It was very expensive because monkey kidneys were used as raw materials - 1,500 monkeys were required per million doses of vaccine. Nevertheless, by 1956, 60 million children had been vaccinated with it, killing 200,000 monkeys.

Around the same time, scientist Albert Sabin made a live vaccine that did not require the killing of animals in such quantities. In the USA, they did not dare to use it for a very long time: after all, a live virus. Then Sabin transferred the strains to the USSR, where experts Smorodintsev and Chumakov quickly set up testing and production of the vaccine. They checked on themselves, their children, grandchildren and grandchildren of friends.

In 1959-1961, 90 million children and adolescents were vaccinated in the Soviet Union. Poliomyelitis in the USSR disappeared as a phenomenon, only isolated cases remained. Since then, vaccines have wiped out the disease around the world.

Today poliomyelitis is endemic in some countries in Africa and Asia. In 1988, WHO adopted a disease control program and by 2001 had reduced the number of cases from 350,000 to 1,500 per year. A program has now been adopted for the complete destruction of the disease, as was done with smallpox.

09. Syphilis

Disease is caused by Treponema pallidum Treponema pallidum - a bacterium transmitted mainly sexually. First, the lesion is local (hard chancre), then - the skin, then - any organ. It can take decades from the onset of the disease to the death of the patient.

What is the victory. “Listen, uncle,” I went on aloud, “the gulp is a secondary matter. We will also help the throat, but most importantly, you need to treat your common illness. And you will have to be treated for a long time, two years.

Then the patient goggled at me. And in them I read my sentence:

"You're crazy, doctor!"

What's taking so long? the patient asked. - How is it, two years ?! I would like some rinse for a throat ... "- this is from the" Notes of a young doctor "by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Syphilis was brought to Europe, most likely from America. "French disease" mowed people down, at one time it even became the main cause of death. At the beginning of the 20th century, whole districts were sick with syphilis, and in the Russian army every fifth was affected.

Mercury ointments, which successfully treated secondary syphilis, were also introduced by Paracelsus, after which they were used 450 years until the middle of the last century. But the disease spread mainly due to the illiteracy of the population. And the treatment was long.

Syphilis was treated with iodine and arsenic preparations until antibiotics were discovered. Moreover, the very first antibiotic, isolated by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, killed the pale treponema on the spot. It turned out to be the only bacterium that has not yet managed to develop resistance to penicillin, so it is destroyed. However, several alternative antibiotics are now available. The course is from six days.

Today another wave of syphilis spread. In 2009, 52 cases per 100 thousand population were recorded in Russia. As in the days of Bulgakov, the main reason is that syphilis again ceased to be terrible.

10. Measles

Disease arises from the measles virus, one of the most contagious airborne viruses. Mostly children are ill: rash, cough, fever, many complications, often fatal.

What is the victory. Previously, almost every child was sick with measles. At the same time, from 1 to 20% died, depending on the diet. The mere addition of vitamins to sick people reduced mortality by half. No radical treatment was found, and the pathogen itself was discovered very late: in 1954. The virus was isolated by the American John Enders and his colleagues, and already in 1960 received a valid vaccine. At the same time, Soviet microbiologists also received the vaccine.

In developed countries, children were vaccinated without exception, and measles famously declined - the virus, known for its phenomenal infectiousness, did not break through the immune block.

Today WHO has announced a global measles control program. By 2011, mortality from it was reduced to 158 thousand per year against 548 thousand in 2000. However, this means that 430 children die from measles every day on Earth. Just because they don't get a $ 1 vaccine.

P. S. Of course, there is also HIV. But it is completely new - the description of the disease was received in 1981, and the virus was isolated in 1983. In 2012, 35.2 million people were infected in the world, including 2.7 million new cases, 1.6 million died. For all the time, about 30 million people died, and more than 60 million were infected. This, of course, cannot be compared with the number of victims of smallpox or plague, but not much time has passed since the beginning of the epidemic. Experience shows that a person is more ferocious in dealing with infections than infections - in dealing with a person. So we will cope with HIV. It's just a virus.

Photo: AKG / East News; Alamy / ITAR-TASS; Dieu Nalio Chery / AP; Veronika Burmeister / Visuals Unlimited / Corbis / Fotosa.ru; SPL / East News; Gabriel Szabo / Medicimage / Global Look Press; SPL / East News (3); CSU Archives / Everett Collection / East News

New time, which began in the 17th century, became an era of approval and gradual victory in Western Europe capitalism as a new mode of production, an era of rapid development of science and technology. Under the influence of such exact sciences as mechanics and mathematics, mechanism was established in philosophy. Within the framework of this type of worldview, nature was viewed as a huge mechanism, and a person as an initiative and active worker.

The main theme of modern philosophy was the theme knowledge... There are two major currents: empiricismand rationalismwho interpreted the sources and nature of human knowledge in different ways.
Supporters empiricism(Bacon, Hobbes, Locke) argued that the main source of reliable knowledge about the world is human sensations and experience. This position is most thoroughly stated in the work of Bacon. Bacon was a supporter empirical methods cognition (observation, experiment). He considered philosophy to be an experimental science based on observation, and its subject should be the surrounding world, including the person himself. The supporters of empiricism called for relying in everything on the data of experience, human practice.

Supporters rationalismbelieved that the main source of reliable knowledge is knowledge (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz). Descartes is considered the founder of rationalism - the author of the expression "question everything." He believed that in everything one should rely not on faith, but on reliable conclusions, and nothing should be taken for the final true.

Along with a positive assessment of the possibilities of cognition, in the 17th century, a revival and philosophical agnosticismwho denied the possibility of human cognition of the world. He showed himself in the work of Berkeley and Hume, who believed that man knows only the world of phenomena, but is not able to penetrate into the depths of things, to reach knowledge of the laws of the surrounding nature.

The views of Spinoza, who asserted that nature is the cause of itself and all processes taking place in it, had a pantheistic orientation. God does not stand above nature, but is its inner cause. Knowledge is achieved by reason and it is the primary condition for free human activity. The German philosopher Leibniz emphasized the spiritual nature of the world. The basis of the universe are monads, as units of being, giving the world variety and harmony.

In the 17th century, widespread "legal" worldview... Within its framework, the theory of "social contract" was developed (Hobbes, Locke). She explained the origin of the state by the voluntary agreement of people in the name of their own safety. This worldview professed the idea of \u200b\u200bnatural human rights to freedom and property. The legal worldview expressed the sentiments of the young bourgeoisie as a class formed in the modern era.

In the development of social teachings of modern times in the 18th century, a special contribution was made french Enlightenment(Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau), who ideologically prepared the French Revolution of 1789 - 1794. They perceived the church as a symbol of ignorance and obscurantism, a brake on the development of society, therefore Voltaire's motto: "Crush the reptile!" Became the slogan of the era, predetermining the requirements for the separation of the church from the state. According to the Enlighteners social progress possible only with the help of reason, law, science and education. Man is a natural and social being and is capable of endless development and improvement of his activities. But private property makes people unequal, gives rise to envy and enmity between them, therefore, a new society must be created on the basis of social equality and justice. The enlighteners held positions of historical optimism, and their ideal was the republic, as a form of democracy.

A significant contribution to the doctrine of the nature and essence of man, the ways of his upbringing, made french Materialists18th century: Diderot, Helvetius, Holbach. They believed that man is a product of his environment. Therefore, in order to change the morals of people, it is necessary to change the circumstances of their lives. This idea of \u200b\u200bthe Enlighteners was the source of the emergence of Marxist philosophy.

THE WORLD OUTLOOK OF THE NEW TIME was the fruit of an amazing confluence of events, ideas and historical figures, which, despite their apparent mutual hostility, gave life to a surprisingly convincing view of the Universe and the place of man in it. This worldview had a fundamentally new character and was fraught with paradoxical consequences. The same factors both reflected and accelerated the fundamental changes that took place in the Western character. And now, in order to understand the essence of the historical emergence of modern thinking, let's move on to consider the complex interweaving of cultural eras known as the Renaissance, Reformation and Scientific Revolution.

Revival

The Renaissance is manifested equally both in the variety of its phenomena and in their unpredictable nature. In a period of time equal to the life of one generation, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael created their masterpieces, Columbus discovered the New World, Luther rebelled against catholic Church and began the Reformation, and Copernicus put forward a hypothesis about the heliocentricity of the Universe and initiated the Scientific Revolution. If we compare the man of the Renaissance with his medieval predecessor, it seems that he suddenly, as if jumping over several steps, rose to almost the status of a superman. From now on, man began to boldly penetrate the secrets of nature both with the help of science and with his art, doing it with unsurpassed mathematical grace, empirical precision and truly divine power of aesthetic influence. He immeasurably expanded the limits of the hitherto known world, discovered new continents and circled the entire globe. He dared to challenge traditional authorities and assert a truth based on his own judgment. He was able to appreciate the treasures of classical culture and at the same time he was free to break out of old boundaries in order to rush to completely new horizons. Polyphonic music, tragedy and comedy, poetry, painting, architecture and sculpture - all this has risen to a new level of complexity and beauty. Individual genius and independence were everywhere asserting themselves. It seemed that not one side of knowledge, creativity or research can hide from a person.

With the onset of the Renaissance, human life in this world regained its inherent direct, independent value, a kind of exciting existential significance that balanced and even completely supplanted the old medieval point of view, which focused all attention on the afterlife fate of the human soul. Man was no longer as insignificant as before, in comparison with God, the Church or nature. The human dignity proclaimed by the lips of Pico della Mirandola has justified itself in the most diverse spheres of human activity. The Renaissance tirelessly generated more and more new examples of possible achievements of the human spirit - starting with Petrarch, Boccaccio, Bruni and Alberti, then Erasmus, Mora, Machiavelli and Montaigne, right up to its final outbursts - Shakespeare, Cervantes, Francis Bacon and Galileo. History has not known such a bright flowering of human consciousness and culture since the days of the "Greek miracle" in antiquity, at the very dawn of Western civilization. Truly, the man of the West was experiencing a rebirth.

It would be, however, fundamentally wrong to see in the Renaissance only the brilliance and radiance of light, for it was preceded by many cruel calamities and catastrophes, and its apogee came at a time of continuous unrest. In the middle of the XIV century, a black tornado of the bubonic plague swept across Europe, taking with it about a third of the entire population of the continent and endangering the balance of economy and culture on which the entire civilization of the high Middle Ages was based. Many people thought that the wrath of God had fallen on the earth. The hundred-year war between England and France turned into an endless, destructive conflict, and at the same time Italy was torn apart by incessant invasions and internecine wars. Pirates, bandits, and mercenary thugs prowled everywhere. The religious struggle has become international. For decades and almost everywhere, economic life fell into decay. Universities have comprehended the gravest sclerosis. All new diseases spread from port cities literally paralyzed Europe. Black magic and devil worship, mass flagellations, dances of death in cemeteries, black masses, the Inquisition, torture and public burnings of heretics ruled the ball. Church conspiracies have become commonplace, leading to such events as, for example, the murder committed with the knowledge and consent of the Pope right at the altar of the Florentine Cathedral during Holy Mass on Easter Sunday.At every step, murders, violence, robberies were committed, every year there was a danger of hunger and pestilence ulcer. At any moment, the invasion of the Turkish hordes threatened Europe. The end of the world was expected everywhere. The Church itself - this most important of the cultural institutions of the West - was seen by many as the focus of decline and depravity, and its structure and purpose - long deprived of spiritual integrity and purity. It was against this background of the mass decomposition of culture, violence and death that the "new life", that is, the Renaissance, began.

As well as several centuries ago, during the medieval cultural upheaval, technical inventions played a major role in shaping the new era. By this time, in the West, four such inventions (in the East they all appeared much earlier) were introduced into everyday life, at the same time giving rise to countless cultural branches. These were: a magnetic compass that allowed sailors to rush to any side of the world, promising new discoveries to Europe; gunpowder, which now served to overthrow the old feudal order and raise national consciousness; mechanical clocks, with the appearance of which decisive changes took place in the attitude of man to time, nature and work, for from now on natural rhythms no longer gravitated over the routine of human activity; and, finally, the printing press, which led to a real boom of enlightenment, because with its help both the classical classics and modern works became available to the reading public, whose ranks expanded significantly: thus, the monopoly on scholarship, which had been in the hands of the clergy for a long time, came to an end ...

All these inventions contributed to the most powerful transformations in many areas of life and their final secularization. The rise of separate and, at the same time, internally interconnected national states, accompanied by the appearance of artillery, meant not only the destruction of the old feudal structures, but also the powerful arming of the secular forces that opposed themselves to the Catholic Church. In the realm of thought, the advent of the printing press had a similar effect: it helped to rapidly spread new and often rebellious ideas throughout Europe. Without printed appeals, the Reformation would not have gone beyond a relatively narrow theological dispute in a remote German province, and the Scientific Revolution, which relied entirely on the international communication of many scientists, would have been simply impossible. In addition, the spread of the printed word and the rise in literacy contributed to the formation of a new character that bore the imprint of personal rather than collective forms of communication and experience, thereby encouraging the development of individualism. Reading to oneself and meditating alone helped the individual to free himself from traditional ways of thinking and from the collective supervision of thinking, because from now on each reader had personal access to many different points of view and forms of experience. "A similar progressive consequence was followed by the emergence of mechanical watches, which, with their well-defined system of cogwheels and gears, became the prototype of all modern machines and accelerated the emergence of various advances in the field of mechanics and mechanical engineering. It is equally important that such a triumph of mechanics formed the basis of a conceptual model and metaphor for the emerging science of a new era, as well as for all modern thinking, largely shaping the modern view of Space and nature, man, an ideal society and even God. Likewise, the “great discoveries” made possible by the magnetic compass brought new trends to the intellectual sphere, simultaneously reflecting and encouraging further scientific research of the natural World, confirming and strengthening the new self-consciousness of the West, which stood on the approaches to the heroic frontiers of civilized history. The discoveries made by the explorers of new lands, unexpectedly discovering errors, and sometimes the ignorance of ancient geographers, gave rise to a new consciousness of their own awareness and even superiority over the teachers of antiquity, who had previously seemed unsurpassed, thereby undermining all traditional authorities. One of the "exposed" geographers turned out to be Ptolemy, which was not slow to affect his reputation as an astronomer. Expeditions of seafarers demanded, in turn, more accurate astronomical knowledge and more knowledgeable astronomers (Copernicus would soon appear from among them). The discovery of new continents provided new opportunities for economic and political expansion, which caused fundamental transformations in the European social order. These discoveries also brought acquaintance with new cultures, religions, with a completely different way of life, enriching the European consciousness with a hitherto unknown feeling of the relativity of familiar values, which replaced the previous confidence in the absoluteness of their own traditional ideas. The horizons of the West - geographic, mental, social, economic, political - were changing shape in unheard of ways and expanding uncontrollably.

Along with all these achievements, psychological development also reached a high level, which was reflected in the European character, which took shape in the special cultural and political atmosphere of Italy in the Renaissance, and has now undergone significant transformations. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Italian city-states - Florence, Milan, Venice, Ur-Bino, and others - were in many ways prominent centers of urban culture in Europe. Vigorous merchant entrepreneurship, flourishing trade throughout the Mediterranean, constant contacts with the oldest civilizations of the East provided them with a powerful influx of prosperity, causing an economic and cultural upsurge. In addition, the weakening of the papal power of Rome as a result of the continuous struggle against the disintegrating Holy Roman Empire, along with the rise of nation states in the north, caused a situation of extreme political instability in Italy. The small size of the Italian city-states, their independence, successful trade and cultural vitality all paved the way for the flourishing of a spirit of courageous, creative, and often merciless individualism. If in earlier times the life of the state was determined by the structures of power and law and order, sanctified by tradition or the highest authority, now the most significant are personal abilities, discretion of political action and deliberate strategy. The state itself began to be understood as something that is manipulated by human will and human reason, which have comprehended its internal mechanism: all this allows us to see in the Italian city-states the prototype of the modern state.

The value that began to be attached to individualism and personal genius largely predetermined the corresponding character of Italian humanism, whose awareness of personal dignity also rested on the abilities of the individual and whose ideal was a free man gifted with a versatile genius. The medieval ideal of a Christian man, whose personal individuality was almost completely dissolved in the community of Christian souls, began to recede under the onslaught of more "pagan" heroic ideas: the ideal of a man was now seen as an adventurer, a genius, a rebel. The realization of such a multilateral "ego" could be achieved not in a hermitic distance from the world, but in a life full of intense action, in serving one's city-state, in science and art, in trade and business and in social activities. Previously irreconcilable disagreements now coexist peacefully side by side: worldly activities - with the contemplation of eternal truths; service to the state, family and oneself - with devotion to God and the Church; earthly pleasures - with spiritual joy; material prosperity - with virtue. Rejecting the ideal of monastic non-covetousness, the Renaissance man rushed towards a luxurious life that could be achieved through personal efforts: so in the age of humanism, scientists and artists, having mastered the new cultural climate, rolled like cheese in butter, living on full satisfaction with the Italian trade and aristocratic elite ...

A complex set of influences, in which political dynamism, economic prosperity, extensive scientific activity, sensual art and a peculiar affinity to ancient and Eastern Mediterranean cultures intertwined, caused and then incessantly encouraged a new secular spirit that conquered ever large spaces throughout Italy, penetrating even the holy of holies - the Vatican. In the eyes of pious people, paganism and immorality became the main signs of Italian life. This manifested itself not only in the cold-bloodedly prepared villainies and intrigues played out on the political stage, but also in the calmly mundane character, which bore the interest of the Renaissance man to nature, knowledge, beauty and luxury - just births themselves. Thus, it was at the origins of the dynamic culture of Renaissance Italy that the development of a new Western understanding of the human personality began. A personality marked by individualism, secularism, willpower, a variety of interests and aspirations, innovative creativity and a willingness to break any fetters that have fettered human activity for centuries, soon began to assert itself throughout Europe, laying the foundations of a modern character.

However, in spite of all the secularism of the Renaissance, the Roman Catholic Church quite tangibly reached the zenith of its glory precisely in this era. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Stanza della Senbiatura in the Vatican to this day remain stunning monuments that immortalize the pre-sunset hours of the Church in the role of the sovereign ruler of Western culture. It captures a truly impressive image of the Catholic Church, as if contemplating itself in a giant mirror: starting with the creation of the world and the biblical drama (ceiling of the Sistine Chapel), including philosophy and science classical greece ("The Athenian School"), poetry and artistic creation ("Parnassus") and the crowning all the rest of theology with the supreme pantheon of Roman Catholic Christianity ("Dispute", "Triumph of the Church"). A whole chain of centuries, the whole history of the Western soul has found its incorruptible embodiment here. Under the patronage of Pope Julius II (a very energetic man, although he did not resemble a spiritual person), such great masters as Raphael, Bramante and Michelangelo created paintings, sculptures, drawings and projects of buildings, glorifying the majestic worldview of Catholicism with their creations of unsurpassed beauty and strength. Thus, the Mother Church, the mediator between God and man, the progenitor of Western culture, has now gathered and reunited all her diverse elements: Judaism and Hellenism, Scholasticism and Humanism, Platonism and Aristotelianism, pagan myth and biblical revelation. A new "sum" was created, which chose the language of the picturesque imagery of the Renaissance as its language and fused all the components of Western culture in a truly transcendental synthesis. It seemed as if the Church, instinctively anticipating her impending mortal convulsions, had summoned from her depths all the forces of her own cultural self-awareness and found truly God-equal artists in order to forever capture her sublime image.

At the same time, the splendid flourishing of the Catholic Church in an age that stepped so decisively towards "this world" was one of the paradoxes, very typical of the Renaissance. For the unique position that the Renaissance occupies in the history of culture is not least due to its ability to balance and synthesize many opposites: Christianity and paganism, novelty and antiquity, secular and sacred, art and science, science and religion, poetry and politics. The Renaissance was both an independent era and a transitional stage. Combining the features of the Middle Ages and the New Age, it remained a highly religious century (Ficino, Michelangelo, Erasmus, Mor, Savonarola, Luther, Loyola, Teresa of Avila, Juan de la Cruz) and at the same time - it cannot be denied - it was already becoming worldly (Machiavelli, Cellini, Castiglione, Montaigne, Bacon, Medici and Borgia families, most of the Renaissance popes). And at the same time, when scientific consciousness was born and flourished, religious passions flared up, and often both lines entered into a confusing interaction.

The combination of contradictions characteristic of the Renaissance, already anticipated by the ideal of Petrarch's doctapietas, was now being implemented by such religious humanist thinkers as Erasmus of Rotterdam and his friend Thomas More. Humanist Christians of the Renaissance put irony and restraint, worldly activity and classical erudition at the service of the Christian ideal, doing it with such skill that the sages of the Middle Ages never dreamed of. The dogmatic piety of a more primitive era was replaced by enlightened ecumenical evangelism. Naive religious prejudices were supplanted by critical religious rationality. The philosopher Plato and the apostle Paul were brought together in order to forge with modern efforts a new "philosophy of Christ" (philosophia Christi).

But, perhaps, the contradictions and integrity of this era were most clearly reflected in art. At the dawn of the Quattrocento, out of twenty paintings, only one was written on a non-religious subject. After a hundred years, their number has increased fivefold. Even on the walls of the Vatican Palace, images of the Madonna and the infant Christ coexisted with paintings that represented nudity and pagan gods... The human body, glorified in all its beauty and harmonious proportionality of forms, at the same time, is often illustrated with religious subjects or testified to the creative wisdom of God. Renaissance art was based on the exact imitation of nature, rising to incredible technical skill in the realistic reproduction of nature. At the same time, it achieved extraordinary spiritual power, which made it possible to capture the divine presence, beings of the religious and mythological pantheons, as well as great contemporaries in paintings. I must say that the gift of transmitting the divine would be unthinkable without technical innovations - geometric division of space, linear perspective, aerial perspective, anatomical knowledge, chiaroscuro and sfumato techniques, born of the desire for realism and empirical accuracy. In turn, these advances in painting and drawing contributed to the further scientific advancement of anatomy and medicine, foreshadowing the global dominance of mathematics over the physical world that the Scientific Revolution would bring with it. Not the least role in the emergence of modern views was played by the fact that the art of the Renaissance depicted in a certain single space a world consisting of rationally interconnected geometric bodies, the world seen from one, objective point.

The Renaissance had a particular passion for deliberate "blurring of boundaries", not recognizing strict distinctions between different areas of human knowledge or experience. The first example of this kind is the personality of Leonardo da Vinci, equally devoted to the search for knowledge and the search for beauty, an artist sophisticated in many arts, with insatiable greed embarked on scientific research on a truly inconceivable scale. The experiments and observations made by him in the name of comprehending the world more fully and consciously, helped new scientific insights to the same extent as art: in his "science of painting" Leonardo pursued both goals simultaneously. His art was the incomprehensible miracle of combining spirituality with the utmost technical skill. A unique feature of the Renaissance was precisely the fact that the man, whose brush belonged to "The Last Supper" and "Madonna in the Grotto", formulated in his diaries three fundamental principles - empiricism, mathematics and mechanics - which were to dominate modern scientific thinking.

In the same way, Copernicus and Kepler, under the influence of neoplatonic and Pythagorean ideas, were looking for such solutions for astronomical problems that would satisfy aesthetic requirements, and such a strategy led them directly to the discovery of the heliocentricity of the universe. Equally important was the strongest religious orientation, usually combined with platonic themes - it had a significant impact on most of the major figures in the Scientific Revolution, right up to Newton. For this activity was based on an almost unconscious idea of \u200b\u200bthe mythical golden age, when everything in the world was known and understood, about the Garden of Eden, about the times of classical antiquity, about the era of the great sages that has sunk into the past. The falling away of man from the original state of grace and enlightenment resulted in a fatal loss of knowledge. Therefore, the acquisition of knowledge was again endowed with a religious meaning. And just as in Athens of the classical period, religion, art and myth of the ancient Greeks united and interacted with the new, also Greek spirit of rationalism and science, the Renaissance managed to again achieve this paradoxical union and balance.

Despite the fact that in many respects the Renaissance was a direct product of the richest, flourishing culture of the high Middle Ages, one thing is clear: between the middle of the 15th and the beginning of the 17th centuries, there was an undoubted quantitative leap in the cultural evolution of the West. In retrospect, a number of different favorable factors can be identified: the rediscovery of antiquity, the vigorous development of trade, the increasing role of the individual in city-states, technical inventions, and so on. However, even after listing all these "reasons" that determined the Renaissance, there is a vague feeling that the true power and essence of the Renaissance is immeasurably superior to any of these factors - and even all of them put together. Historical evidence suggests that at the same time in many areas a new consciousness began to loudly declare itself, expansive, rebellious, seething with creative energy, individualistic, ambitious and often unprincipled, inquisitive, self-confident, attached to this life and the world here, alert and skeptical, full of inspiration and enthusiasm, and that this newborn consciousness had a meaning of its own (raisond "etre.) The impulse that gave it life was much stronger than any combination of political, social, technological, religious, philosophical or artistic factors. another; if scientists of the Middle Ages divided the entire history of mankind into two periods - before and after the Nativity of Christ (very vaguely drawing the line between their own time and the Roman era, when Jesus Christ lived) - then the historians of the Renaissance introduced a fundamentally different view of the past (possibly related new feeling artistically th perspective). For the first time, history began to be perceived and defined as a three-part structure that absorbed antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times, thereby drawing a sharp border between the classical and medieval periods and placing the Renaissance in the vanguard of modern times.

The movement of events and figures on the stage of the Renaissance took place with amazing speed, even synchronously. Columbus and Leonardo were born in the same five-year period (1450-55), which was marked by the appearance of the Gutenberg printing press, the fall of Constantinople, which caused an influx of Greek scientists to Italy, and the end of the Hundred Years War, during which the national identity of England and France arose. In two decades (1468-88), which saw the peak of the Neoplatonic revival at the Florentine Academy under Lorenzo the Magnificent, Copernicus, Luther, Castiglione, Raphael, Durer, Michelangelo, Giorgione, Machiavelli, Caesar Borgia, Zwingli, Pizarro, Magellan were seen. ... At the same time, the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella united Aragon and Castile, and from this union the people of Spain were born; the Tudor dynasty ascended to the English throne; Leonardo took the first steps in his career as an artist, having completed the figure of an angel in the "Baptism of Christ" by Verrocchio, and then created his own painting - "Adoration of the Magi"; Botticelli wrote "Spring" and "The Birth of Venus"; Ficino expounded his Platonic Theology and published the first complete translation of Plato in the West; Erasmus received the beginnings of a humanist education in the Netherlands, and Pico della Mirandola composed his "Speech on the Dignity of Man" - a manifesto of the humanist Renaissance. There was more at work here than "reasons." It was a spontaneous and irrepressible upheaval of consciousness that affected almost all aspects of Western culture. Against the background of the lofty drama, in painful shudders, a new Renaissance man was born, "enveloped in a cloud of glory."