ABSTRACT
Medieval medical professionals used their knowledge of scholastic olfactory theory in the interests of public health, and this type of communication spread information about the sense of smell to the broader population. In particular, physicians explained the cause of epidemic disease such as the plague as detailed by corrupt air (or miasma) theory to governing authorities in order to preserve public health. In the simplest terms, corrupt air theory taught that bad odor induces illness and good odor protects and heals the body. Thus, corrupt air theory was indistinguishable and indivisible from the essential powers of smell. Governing authorities of cities and kingdoms incorporated corrupt air theory into laws aimed at maintaining cleanliness and public health by removing the sources of stench that might putrefy the air and cause epidemic disease. During times of disease, civic authorities as well as individual householders made efforts to fill the air with good odors to combat disease. The powers of odor to cure and cause disease quickly became a matter of universal importance when the plague struck Europe in the mid-fourteenth century. As corrupt air theory moved outside the scholastic sphere, so too did theories of olfaction.
