Chapter 20

180Comp.Foot, “Abh. über die Lustseuche” (Treatise on Venereal Disease), transl. from the English byH. Ch. Reich, Vol. I. p. 62.181Surgeon in Chief of the Esbekieh Hospital at Cairo.182The passage ofAretaeus(Morb. chron. bk. II. ch. 13. edit. Kühn p. 180.) can hardly be cited as evidence on the other side in this case, as the question there discussed is elephantiasis, not the leprosy of the Jews at all. Any how we read there: τρίχες ἐν μὲν τῷ παντὶ προτεθνήσκουσι, χερσὶ μηροῖσι κνήμῃσι, αὖθις ἥβῃ, γενείοισι ἀραιαὶ, ψεδναὶ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ κόμαι· τὸ δὲ μᾶλλον πρόωροι, πολιοὶ καὶ φαλάκρωσις ἀθρόη· οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν δὲ ἥβη καὶ ἐπιμίμνοιεν παυραὶ τρίχες, ἀπρεπέστεραι τῶν ἀποιχομένων. (Hair dies first in every part, on hands, thighs, shins; again on pubes and cheeks it becomes thin, and scanty also on the head. The locks are prematurely white, and baldness becomes general; nor is it long before pubes and cheeks are bare, and if a few scanty hairs should remain, they are uncomely as compared with those that have disappeared). Nor would it be any fairer to cite the fact that Albinos are covered over the whole body with a fine, white, woolly hair.183AlreadyJ. D. Michaelis, “Fragen an eine Gesellschaft gelehrter Männer, die auf Befehl Ihro Majestät des Königs von Dänemark nach Arabien reisen,” (Questions addressed to a Society of Learned Men, travelling at the Command of HM. the King of Denmark to Arabia), Frankfurt-on-the-Main 1762., p. 23., says in the 11th. question on Leprosy under head No. 8.: “Does it possess a natural diagnostic mark in this, if it breaks out everywhere at once, and covers the whole body? From Leviticus XIII. 12-13. we might seem to be almost justified in concluding this to be so. But I am in doubt how in that case this passage is to be interpreted in accordance with the history of the disease.” Comp. p. 335. Note 1.184Philosoph. Transactions Vol. XXXI.Foot, Treatise on Venereal Disease, Vol. I. pp. 25 sqq.185D. Hennen, Sketches of the Medical Topography of the Mediterranean. London 1830.186Galen, De febr. diff., bk. I., edit. Kühn Vol. VII. 284 sqq., δριμὺ δ’ἀποῤῥοῖ καὶ δακνῶδες περίττωμα τοῖς ἤτοι κακοχυμοτέροις, ἢ ἐδέσματα μοχθηρὰ προσφερομένοις τοιαῦτα γοῦν ἐδέσματα καὶ νῦν ἀναγκασθέντες ἐσθίειν πολλοὶ διὰ λιμὸν οἱ μὲν ἀπέθανον ἀπὸ σηπεδονωδῶν τε καὶ λοιμωδῶν πυρετῶν,οἱ δὲ ἐξανθήμασιν ἑάλωσαν ψωρώδεσι τε καὶ λεπρώδεσιν. (But there discharges an acrid and biting excretion, and this in patients already only too much afflicted with evil humours, or else food becomes noxious to them, though normally able to tolerate such food; and now being forced to eat, many died in consequence of the plague, some from putrefying and pestilential fevers, while others againwere attacked by exanthematic eruptions of the psora and lepra types).187Martial, Bk. VI. Epigr. 37.,O quantascabiemiser laborat!Culum non habet, est tamen cinaedus.(How sad a scurvy (scabies) does the wretch groan under! Bottom all gone; and yet he is a cinaedus!)Bk. XI. Epigr. 8.,Penelopae licet esse tibi sub principe NervaSed prohibetscabiesingeniumque vetus.(You may be a Penelope under Nerva as Emperor; only thatscurvyhinders you and inveterate viciousness). Themala scabies(horrid scurvy) fromHorace, Ars Poet. 453., is familiar; as well as the statement ofJustin(Hist. XXXVI. 2.) to the effect that the Jews were driven out of Egypt on account of Scabies and Vitiligo (Tetter), that the Egyptians might not be infected by them. Comp.Michaelis, “Mosaisches Recht”, (Mosaic Law) IV. 209. The infectious nature of psora is declared also byAristotle, Problem. VII. 8.Galen, De puls. diff., IV. 1. The transition ofmentagraintopsorahas been already mentioned.188Aristophanes, Birds 151. makes Euelpides say: βδελλύττομαι τὸν Λέπρεον ἀπὸ Μελανθίου (I detest the “Leprean” of Melanthius), on which the Scholiast remarks: Μελάνθιος ὁ τραγικός· κωμωδεῖται γὰρ εἰς μαλακίαν καὶ ὀψοφαγίαν. Πλάτων δὲ αὐτὸν ἐν Σκύθαις ὡςλάλονσκώπτει· εἶχε δὲ Μελάνθιος λέπραν. (Melanthius the Tragedian; for he is derided on account of his luxurious living and gluttony. But Plato laughs at him in the “Scythians” as agarrulousperson; now Melanthius hadleprosy). The same thing is mentioned in the “Peace”, 803., with the addition, καὶ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐν Κόλαξιν Εὔπολις ὡς κίναιδον αὐτὸν διαβάλλει καὶ κόλακα· ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς λευκὰς ἔχοντα καὶ λεπράς. (and still more severely does Eupolis in his “Flatterers” ridicule him as beingpathicand a flatterer; moreover as having whites,—white leprosies,—and leprosies). Here we would particularly call attention to the λευκαί (white leprosies), which we have already noted as a consequence of the habits of thecunnilingue; and with this the λάλον (garrulous, talkative) of the Comic poet Plato agrees very well, forHesychiusexplains γλωσσοστροφεῖν (to ply the tongue) byπεριλαλεῖνand στωμύλλεσθαι (to be very talkative, to babble). Thusleprawould seem to be attached as penalty to the vice of the pathic, Elephantiasis is stated to be infectious byAretaeus, Morb. chron., II. 12. andPaulus Aegineta, IV. 1.; however, present day experience tells us nothing of this, and the later Greek physicians refer it again to deficient gall (Marx, Orig. contag., p. 78.); what was the meaning of its great contagiousness in earlier times?189Von Roeser, loco citato p. 69. Inflammation of the throat, or ulcerations of the throat, are very rare; still rarer are diseases of the bones, and then only taking the form of swellings of the periosteum.190Hippocrates, Epidem. Bk. III., edit. Kühn Vol. III. p. 486., στόματα πολλοῖσιν ἀθώδεα, ἑλκώδεα· ῥεύματα περὶ τὰ αἰδοιᾶ πολλά· ἑλκώματα, φύματα, ἔξωθεν ἔσωθεν τὰ περὶ βουβῶνας, ὀφθαλμίαι ὑγραὶ, μακραὶ χρόνιαι μετὰ πόνων· ἐπιφύσεις βλεφάρων ἔξωθεν ἔσωθεν, πολλῶν φθείροντες τὰς ὄψιας, ἃ σῦκα ἐπονομάζουσιν· ἐφύετο δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀλλῶν ἑλκέων πολλὰ καὶ αἰδοίοισιν. (for translation see text above).191Hippocrates, Bk. IV. Aphor. 82., edit. Kühn Vol. III. p. 735., ὁκόσοισιν ἐν τῇ οὐρήθρῃ φύματα φύεται, τουτέοισι διαπυήσαντος καὶ ἐκραγέντος λύσις. (for translation see text above). The same Aphorism is repeated again Bk. VII. Aphor. 57. p. 763., ὁκόσοισιν ἐν τῇ οὐρήθρῃ φύματα γίνονται, τουτέοισι διαπυήσαντος καὶ ἐκραγέντοςλύεται ὁ πόνος. (Patients having abscesses in the urethra,find relief from the suffering, so soon as these have suppurated and broken).—Celsus, bk. II. ch. 8. translates this by: Quibus in fistula urinae minuti abscessus, quos φύματα Graeci vocant, esse coeperunt, iis ubi pus ea parte profluxit, sanitas redditur. (Patients in whom small abscesses have been set up in the urinary canal, which the Greeks call φύματα, recover when once matter has flowed out at the spot).—Galen, in his Explanation of the first Aphorism of Hippocrates (edit. Kühn Vol. XVII. B. p. 778.) says: πρόχειρον γὰρ παντὶ γνῶναι τῶν ἐν τῷ πόρῳ τῷ οὐρητικῷ τῷ κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον, τοῦτο γὰρ οὐρήθραν καλοῦσι· συνισταμένων φυμάτων τὴν λύσιν γίγνεσθαι ῥαγέντων· ἐνδέχεται γὰρ ἰσχουρίαν δή τινα γενέσθαι καὶ διὰ τὸ τοιοῦτον φῦμα καὶ μέντοι καὶ ὡς τὸ φῦμα τοῦτο ῥαγὲνἰάσεται τὴν ἰσχουρίαν εὔδηλον. (For it is within the knowledge of every observer that in the case of abscesses that have been set up in the urinary canal in the region of the privates,—called the urethra,—relief is afforded when once these have burst. For it is likely some retention of urine occurs on account of such abscess, and so the fact of this abscess having burst will obviously remedy the retention). Comp.Galen, De loc. affect. Bk. I. ch. 1., bk. VI. ch. 6.Paulus Aeginetabk. IV. ch. 22.192Hippocrates, Coact. praenot., edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 312., οἷσι δὲ φῦμα περὶ τὴν κύστιν ἐστὶ τὸ παρέχον τὴν δυσουπίην, παντοίως σχηματισθέντες ὀχλέονται·λύσις δὲ τούτου γίνεται πύου ῥαγέντος. (Patients having an abscess in the region of the bladder that causes difficulty of micturition, find themselves troubled and affected in all sorts of ways;but relief from this is experienced, when once the matter has broken out).193Hippocrates, De aere aquis et locis, edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 526., κἢν μὲν τὸ θέρος αὐχμηρὸν γένηται, θᾶσσον παύονται αἱ νοῦσοι· ἢν δὲ ἔπομβρον, πολυχρόνιοι γίνονται καὶ φαγεδαίνας κοινῶς ἐγγίνεσθαι ἀπὸ πάσης προφάσιος, ἢν ἕλκος ἐγγένηται. (And if the Summer is a dry one, the diseases will cease more speedily; if on the other hand it is rainy, they become chronic, and such that cancerous sores are set up on any pretext, if an injury of any sort occur).194Galen, in his Commentary on this passage (Vol. XVII. A. p. 671) says in this connection: διεσήπετο δ’ὑπὸ τῶν μοχθηρῶν χυμῶν ὑγρῶν τὰ στερεά· ποικίλον δ’ εἶναι τὸ ῥεῦμα διὰ τὴν τῶν σηπομένων διαφθορὰν εὔλογον· ὑπὸ γὰρ κοινῆς αἰτίας τῆς σηπεδόνος ἕκαστον τῶν σηπομένων ἴδιον εἶδος ἴσχει τῆς διαφθορᾶς. (But under influence of the morbid moist juices the solid parts rotted away; so it is only reasonable to expect the discharge to be complex, resulting from the destruction of the parts rotted away; for although proceeding from one common cause, that of decomposition, each of the rotting parts has its own particular form of decomposition).195Galen, in his Commentary loco citato p. 672., adds: φοβερωτέραν εἶχε φαντασίαν ἐν τοῖς περὶ κεφαλὴν μορίοις, διὰ τὸ κᾂν βραχὺ τὴν παρὰ φύσιν ἐνταῦθα παραλαχθείη, πλέον γίνεσθαι τὸ αἶσχος ἢ κατὰ τὰ ἄλλα μόρια μεγάλην ἐκτροπὴν εἰς τὸ παρὰ φύσιν ἔχοντα. μηροῦ μὲν γὰρ τὸ βραχίονος ἢ κνήμης ἢ πήχεως ἀποῤῥυὲν δέρμα μικροτέραν ἔχει φαντασίαν, εἰ δὲ τῆς κεφαλῆς συναποπέσοιεν αἱ τρίχες τῷ δέρματι καὶ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἡ τοῦ γενείου σὺν αὐταῖς, ἡ μὲν φαντασία τοῦ πάθους γίνεται μεγάλη, ὁ κίνδυνος δ’ᾗττον ἢ εἰ περὶ αἰδοῖα συμβαίη τὸ τοιοῦτον πάθος ἢ λάρυγγα καὶ θώρακαα καὶ τι τῶν κυρίων· οὐ μόνον δὲ τὰ περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν οὕτως γινόμενα φοβερὰ μᾶλλον ἦν ἢ κακίω, ἀλλὰ καὶ καθ’ ὁτιοῦν ἄλλο μέρος οὕτως ἐκπίπτοντα· κακίω γὰρ ἦν ἐφ’ὧν ἀπέστησεν εἰς τὸ βάθος ὁ τὸ ἐρυσίπελας ἐργαζόμενος χυμὸς κ. τ. λ. (It offered a more terrifying appearance where the parts about the head were affected, because even if only a small deviation occur there from what is normal, the feeling of disgust experienced is greater than in connection with other parts of the body, even when showing a great divergence towards what is abnormal. For the fact of the skin of the thigh being perished, or even when showing of the upper arm, or of the leg, or fore-arm, affords a less formidable appearance, but if the hair fall from the head and the skin along with it, and still more if that of the cheeks and chin go with it, the appearance of injury is very great; but the danger is all the while really less than if the like were to happen to the private parts or larynx and thorax or any of the vital parts. And not only are such things when they happen to the head more terrifying than actually dangerous, but also when it so falls out with regard to any other part; for much more dangerous is the case of those in whom the humour that sets up erysipelas has penetrated deeply in, etc.).196Hippocrates, loco citato p. 284., πολλοῖσι μὲν γὰρ βραχίων καὶ πῆχυς ὅλος [ὅλως] περιεῤῥύη· οἷσι δ’ἐπὶ τὰ πλευρὰ ταῦτα ἐκακοῦτο ἢ τῶν ἔμπροσθέν τι ἢ τῶν ὄπισθεν· οἷσι δὲ ὅλος ὁ μηρὸς ἢ τὰ περικνήμια ἐψιλοῦτο καὶ ποὺς ὅλος· ἢν δὲ πάντων χαλεπώτατον τῶν τοιούτων, ὅτε περὶ ἥβην καὶ αἰδοῖα γενοίατο, καὶ τὰ μὲν περὶ ἕλκεα καὶ μετὰ προφάσιος τοιαῦτα· πολλοῖσι δὲ ἐν πυρετοῖσι καὶ πρὸ πυρετοῦ καὶ ἐπὶ πυρετοῖσι ξυνέπιπτεν. (for translation see text above). For ἢ τὰ περικνήμια ἐψιλοῦτο should evidently be read more correctly withGalen, De temperam. bk. I., edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 532. ἢ τὰ περὶ τὴν κνήμην ἀπεψιλοῦτο.197Galen, Vol. XVII. A. p. 674., Καὶ χωρὶς λοιμώδους καταστάσεως, ὅταν ἐν τούτοις τοῖς χωρίοις ἤτοι φλεγμονή τις ἢ ἐρυσίπελας γένηται, ῥᾷστά τε σήπεται καὶ συμπαθείας ἐργάζεται τῶν ὑπερκειμένων μορίων· διὸ καὶ πολλάκις ἀναγκαζόμεθαμετὰ τὸ περικόψαι τὰ σεσηπότα τὴν χώραν ἐκκαίειν· οὐδὲν οὖν θαυμαστὸν, τοιαύτης καταστάσεως γινομένης ὡς καὶ βραχίονα καὶ μηρὸν καὶ κνήμην, πλευράν τε καὶ κεφαλὴν διασήπειν, ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἥκειν κακώσεως τὰ περὶ αἰδοῖα .... Ἄχρι τοῦ νῦν ὁ λόγος αὐτῷ γέγονε περὶ τῶν ἐρυσιπελάτων, ὅσα δ’ἕλκωσιν ἤ τι μικρὸν οὕτως ἄλλο τῶν ἔξωθεν αἰτίων συνέστη· ἐφεξῆς δὲ περὶ τῶν ἄνευ τοιαύτης αἰτίας γενομένων ποιήσεται τὸν λόγον. (for translation see text above).198Hippocrates moreover, Aphorism. Vol. I. p. 724., says: τοῦ δὲ θέρεος ... καὶσηπεδόνες αἰδοίωνκαὶ ἵδρωα. (And in the Summer ... occur alsoputrefactions of the privatesand transpirations).199Very possibly in many cases these affections of the extremities and genital organs owed their existence toanthraxorcarbuncle; for not only doesHippocrates(p. 487.) say that ἄνθρακες πολλοὶ κατὰ θέρος καὶ ἄλλα ἃ σὴψ καλέεται (many cases of malignant pustule in Summer-time, as well as other complaints known under the general name of putrefaction) appeared under these meteorological conditions, butGalenlikewise (Method. med. bk. XIV., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 980.) observed ananthraxepidemic in Asia, that itself began with numerousphlyctaenae(blisterous swellings) resembling millet seeds; these subsequently broke and gave rise to an ἕλκος ἐσχαρῶδες (scabby sore). Indeed the destruction of the skin took place even without the previous occurrence ofphlyctaenae. πολλάκις δὲ οὐ μίαφλύκταιναγεννᾶται κνησαμένων, ἀλλὰπολλαὶμικραὶ καθάπερ τινὲς κέγχροι καταπυκνοῦσαι τὸ μέρος ὧν ἐκρηγνυμένων ὁμοίως ἐσχαρῶδες ἕλκος γεννᾶται· κατὰδὲ τοὺς ἐπιδημήσαντας ἄνθρακας ἐν Ἀσίᾳ καὶ χωρὶς φλυκταινῶνἐνίοις εὐθέως ἀπεδάρη τὸ δέρμα. (And oftennot one phlyctaenais originated on patients scratching themselves, butmanyminute ones like millet seeds, closely covering the affected part; and when these have broken, a kind of scabby sore is produced. And in cases ofanthrax(malignant pustule), which was at one time epidemic in Asia, in some patients even without there having been previousphlyctaenae, the skin was immediately destroyed).—Comp.Galen, De tumor. praeternat. Vol. VII. p. 719. Further, this information is in any case of importance for the more correct appreciation of the facts as to the Plague of Athens.200Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, bk. II. ch. 49., Διεξῄει γὰρ διὰ παντὸς τοῦ σώματος ἄνωθεν ἀρξάμενον τὸ ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ πρώτον ἱδρυθὲν κακόν· καὶ εἴ τις ἐκ τῶν μεγίστων περιγένοιτο, τῶν γε ἀκρωτηρῖων ἀντίληψιςαὐτὸνἐπεσήμαινε· κατέσκηπτε γὰρ ἐς αἰδοῖα καὶ ἐς ἄκρας χεῖρας καὶ πόδας· καὶ πολλοὶ στερισκόμενοι τούτων διέφευγον· (for translation see text above). In this passage it is usual to read ἀντίληψιςαὐτοῦἐπεσήμαινε, supplying κακοῦ from the previous clause to go with αὐτοῦ—(the seizure of the disease itself on the extremities manifested itself); but even supposing the double genitive with ἀντίληψις defensible, the construction is still very awkward, and is made still more so by the fact that in taking it this way we are compelled to translate ἐπεσήμαινε by “manifested itself” (mali vis, apprehendens extremas corporis partes se prodebat, manifestam faciebat,—the strength of the disease declared itself, made itself manifest, in seizing the extremities of the body,—is Wittenbach’s interpretation, Select. Hist. p. 367.), without by so doing obtaining any clear meaning of the sentence. On the other hand this is got directly we read withReiske(Annotations p. 21. in his “Thucydides Reden, übersetzt von Reiske, nebst lateinischen Anmerkungen über dessen gesammtes Werk,”—Speeches in Thucydides translated into German by Reiske, together with Latin Notes on his “Histories” generally, Leipzig 1761. 8vo.) ἀντίληψιςαὐτὸνἐπεσήμαινε,—a seizure put its mark on him. But whether αὐτοῦ is read or αὐτὸν in any case it will be impossible to take the sentence asKraus, p. 54., has done, when he says: “The pustulous suppurative eruption begins with the head and spreads little by little over the entire body even to the hands and feet. The fact that Thucydides had the eruption especially in his mind when he speaks of the gradual spread of the evil throughout the whole body is shown by the expressions chosen by him “The disease goes through the entire body andmarks(ἐπεσήμαινε) hands and feet.” Now by what other of the symptoms mentioned would the affection of the hands and feet have been likely to make itself evident except by the eruption?” There must surely be few readers of Thucydides capable of putting so radically false an interpretation on the Historian’s words.201Lucretius, De rerum natura bk. VI. 1205 sqq.202Kraus, “Ueber das Alter der Menschenpocken,“—(On the Antiquity of Small-pox), Hanover 1825., pp. 54 sqq.203Paulinus Fabius, Praelectiones Marciae, etc. 352 (but hedefendshis accuracy, as do Lambinus and Mercurialis),—ScuderiPt. I. p. 126. To these we may addPetr. Victorius, Variar. lect. bk. XXXV. ch. 8.204As in the Antonine Plague in the year 235 A. D.,—Galen, De usu part. III. ch. 5., De prob. pravisque alimentor. succ. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. VI. p. 749.;Cyprian, Works, Venice 1728. fol., p. 465.—Further noteHecquet, “Obs. sur la chute des os du pied dans une femme attaquée d’une fèvre maligne,” (Observations on the Falling in of the Bones of the Foot in the case of a Woman attacked by a Malignant Fever), in Memoires de Paris 1746. Histor. p. 40.—J. C. Brebis, De sphacelo totius fere faciei post superatam febrem malignam oborto, (On the Mortification of almost the whole Face supervening after Recovery from a Malignant Fever), in Act. Acad. N. C. Vol. IV. p. 206.—Percival(Samml. auserles. Abh. Vol. XV. p. 335.) observed during an epidemic of putrid fever at Manchester many patients with violent erysipelas on the face and head; and in the Typhus epidemics of 1806-1813,von Hildebrand(“Ueber den ansteckenden Typhus,”—On infectious Typhus), 2nd. edition, Vienna 1814., p. 200. andHorn(“Erfahrungen über die Heilung des ansteckenden Nerven-und Lazarethfiebers,”) (Experiences in the Cure of infections Nervous and Hospital Fevers), 2nd. edition, Berlin 1814., pp. 49, 71. saw violent inflammations of an erysipelas character set up in the nose, elbows, fingers and particularly the toes of their patients, which rapidly passed over into mortification.205A further, question arises whether we should not read, instead of κατέσκηπτε γὰρ καὶ ἐς τὰ αἰδοῖα (for it attacked the genitals also), κατέσκηπτε γὰρκακὸνἐς τὰ αἰδοῖα (for mischief, evil, attacked the genitals).206Joseph Franc, Prax. med. univ. praecept. Pt. I. Vol. III. sect. 2., Typhus, ch. 2. § 4. Note 11. Observation 108., says: “Notwithstanding the fact that in the General Hospital of Vienna Venereal patients were separated from others, yet it often happened at the time I was Physician in Chief there, that patients suffering from concealed Venereal disease or paying patients were admitted into the common Wards. Now if one or the other got typhus, or if such a patient was already lying there, or was brought there,the Venereal cases without exception took the typhus, and particularly so during the mercurial treatment.”207Schönlein, “Vorlesungen”, (Prelections), Vol. II. p. 48., “The syphilitic exanthema either remains stationary when typhus arises, or disappears instantly and for ever—or the part affected with syphilis becomes gangrenous.”Neumann, “Specielle Pathologie und Therapie”, (Special Pathology and Therapeutics), Vol. II. p. 107., “Violent, severe typhoïdal fevers cure syphilis completely; its symptoms disappear with the commencement of the illness and never return.—Again after Petechial fever I have in most cases observed that the syphilis troubles that disappeared at its commencement never came back again.”Historicalvouchers will be afforded in plenty by our later investigations.208Works, Vol. I. p. 765. Epistola ad Amunem, monachum. (Letter to Amunis, a monk).209Euripides, Alcestis 98.,πυλῶν πάροιθεν δ’οὐχ ὁρῶπηγαῖον ὡς νομίζεταιχέρνιβ’ἐπὶ φθιτῶν πύλαις,χαίτα τ’οὔτις ἐπὶ προθύροιςτομαῖος, ἃ δὴ νεκύωνπένθει πιτνεῖ.(Before the doors I see no lustral water from the fountain, as is wont at the doors of the departed, and in the forecourt is no shorn hair, which is ever cut in mourning for the dead.) Comp.Kirchmann, De funeribus Rom. (On Roman Funerals) bk. I. last ch., bk. II, ch. 15.Lomeier, De veterum gentil. lustrationibus (On Public Purifications among the Ancients), ch. 16.Casaubon, On the “Characters” of Theophrastus, ch. 16.210It may be mentioned by way of supplement that Leprosy among the Ancients was pretty nearly universally regarded as a punishment from the gods. Even the Greeks held this view, as comes out clearly fromAeschylus, Choeph. II. 2. This fact points to various conclusions as to liability to infection in Leprosy and the obscurity in which the causes of the disease are involved.211In accordance with the explanations given on a previous page it might be thought quite conceivable that so long as the hymen was intact, a part of the mucous discharge of the vagina and of the menstrual blood was retained, and acquired a certain degree of malignity. This acting on points of the penis where the surface had been accidentally broken in the act of defloration, or even on the mucous membrane of the urethra, might exert an injurious influence.212Euripides, Iphigeneia in Tauris 380.Porphyrius, bk. II. περὶ Ἀποχῆς (On Abstinence),Dio Chrysostom, Homily XIII, on Epist. to Ephesians.—Theophrastus, Charact. ch. 16.—Th. Bartholinus, Antiq. veteris puerperii synopsis (Synopsis of Antiquities of Childbirth in Old Times). Copenhagen 1646. 8vo.213Deipnosoph. bk. XII. p. 518., Πάντες δὲ οἱ πρὸς ἑσπέραν οἰκοῦντες βάρβαροι πιττοῦνται καὶ ξυροῦνται τὰ σώματα· καὶ παρά γε τοῖς Τυῤῥηνοῖς ἐργαστήρια κατεσκεύασται πολλὰ, καὶ τεχνῖται τούτου τοῦ πράγματός εἰσιν, ὥσπερ παρ’ἡμῖν οἱ κουρεῖς· παρ’οὓς ὅταν εἰσέλθωσι, παρέχουσιν ἑαυτοὺς πάντα τρόπον, οὐδὲν αἰσχυνόμενοι τοὺς ὁρῶντας, οὐ δὲ τοὺς παριόντας· χρῶντοι δὲ τούτῳ τῷ νόμῳ πολλοὶ καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ τῶν τὴν Ἰταλίαν οἰκούντων, μαθόντες παρὰ Σαμνιτῶν καὶ Μεσαπίων. (Now all the Barbarians that dwell towards the West, use pitch as a depilatory, and shave their bodies. Indeed amongst the Tyrrhenians establishments are fitted up in numbers for this purpose, and there are artistes who practise this profession, like barbers among ourselves. And when men go into their shops, they expose themselves in every part, feeling no shame of spectators nor of passers-by. And this custom is followed also by many of the Greeks and of the inhabitants of Italy, who have learned it from Samnites and Messapians). The depilation of men and boys was attended to by women (Martial, XI. 79.) at the period of the highest degree of dissoluteness; in fact there was a special guild of such women, known asustriculae.Tertullian, De pallio ch. 4. In the same way men performed this service for women, as e.g.Domitian, according toSuetonius, ch. 22., Erat fama, quasi concubinas ipse develleret (Rumour went, to the effect that the Emperor used to “pluck” his mistresses with his own hand,)—andHeliogabalusaccording toLampridius, ch. 31., In balneis semper cum mulieribus fuit, ita ut eas ipse psilothro curaret, ipse quoque barbam psilothro accurans, quodque pudendum dictu est, eodem quo mulieres accurabantur, et eadem hora. Rasit et virilia subactoribus suis ad novaculam manu sua, qua postea barbam fecit. (At the baths he was always with the women, going so far as to apply the “psilothrum” (a depilatory) in their treatment himself, finishing off his own beard also with “psilothrum”, and using, disgusting to relate, the same as the women were being treated with, and at one and the same time. Moreover he shaved his debauchees’(pathics) privates to the navel with his own hand, and then shaved his own beard).214They used to remove the hair on theface(Martial, III. 74.), from thenose(Ovid, Art. Amand. I. 520.), on the arches of theeyebrows(Cicero, Orat. pro Roscio), from the armpits (Juvenal, XIV. 194.,Seneca, Epist. 115.), on thearms(Martial, III. 63.), thehands(Martial, V. 41.), on thelegs(Juvenal, IX. 12.) As to the beard, that has already been spoken of.215Martial, II. 62., Cui praestas culum, quem, Labiene, pilas. (To whom you give your fundament, Labienus, that you strip of hair).216Martial, II. 62.,Quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod brachia vellis,Quod cincta est brevibusmentula tonsapilis,Haec praestas, Labiene, tuae, quis nescit? amicae.(You pluck your chest, your legs, your arms, yourshaven memberis surrounded by short hair,—all these pains you offer, everyone knows it, to your mistress.) Bk. IX. 27.,Cumdepilatos, Chrestecoleosportes,Etvulturino mentulam parem collo,Et prostitutis laevius caput culis,Nec vivat ullus in tuo pilus crurePurgentque crebrae cana labra volsellae etc.(For you haveyour testicles freed from hair, Chrestus, andyour member like a vulture’s neck, and your head smoother than those posteriors that you prostitute. Not a hair lives on your leg, and frequent application of the tweezers keeps clean your shaven lips, etc.) Comp. Bk. IX. 48. 58.Suetonius, Otho 12.Persius, IV. 37.Ausonius, 131.217Aristophanes, Lysistrat. 151.,Εἰ γὰρ καθῄμεθ’ἔνδον ἐντετριμμέναικἀν τοῖς χιτωνίοισι τοῖς ἀμοργίνοιςγυμναὶ παρίοιμεν,δέλτα παρατετιλμέναι,στύοιντ’ἂν ἅνδρες κἀπιθυμοῖεν πλεκοῦν.(For if we sat within doors anointed with unguents, and if we appeared lightly clad in robes of Amorgian flax,our bellies plucked clear of hair, the men would all have erections, and would be fain to lie with us.) For the same reason Mnesilochus was freed of hair on the genitals and in all other parts of the body, so as not to be recognised in the assemblage of women.218Aristophanes, Eccl. 718., says of prostitutes:καὶ τάς γε δούλας οὐχὶ δεῖ κοσμουμέναςτὴν τῶν ἐλευθέρων ὑφαρπάζειν Κύπριν,ἀλλὰ παρὰ τοῖς δούλοισι κοιμᾶσθαι μόνον.κατωνάκῃτὸν χοῖρον ἀποτετιλμένας.(And the slave-women ought not to bedizen themselves and snatch away the love that is free-women’s by rights; but should lie with slaves only, their pudenda plucked clean to please the wearer of the smock.) Frogs 515., Ξ. πῶς λέγεις; ὀρχηστρίδες; Θ. ἡβυλλιῶσαι κἄρτι παρατετιλμέναι (Xanthius. What say you? dancing-girls? Therap. Yes! young wenches, justplucked clean). Comp. Lysistrat. 88.219Martial, bk. XII. Epigr. 32.,Nec plena turpi matris olla resinaSummoenianae qua pilantur uxores.(Nor yet your mother’s jars full of foul resin, wherewith the suburban dames free themselves of hair.)220Martial, bk. X. Epigr. 90.,Quid vellisvetulum, Ligella,cunnum?Quid busti cineres tui lacessis?Talesmunditiaedecent puellas.Erras, si tibi cunnus hic videtur,Ad quem mentula pertinere desit.(Why pluck you bare, Ligella,your old organ? why vex you the ashes of your tomb? Suchnice allurementsare for girls. You are mistaken if you think yours is of a sort that a man’s member should be fain to belong to it.) This passage, together with those quoted a little above from Aristophanes and Theopompus, will explain sufficiently whatHorace(Sat. I. 2. v. 36.) meant by his “miratorcunniCupienniusalbi,” (Cupiennius admirer of awhite organ), for thealbus(white) here evidently stands forrasus,depilatus,nudus, (shaven, freed from hair, bare); as inJuvenal, Sat. I. 111., Nuper in hanc urbempedibusqui veneratalbis, (Who but now had arrived in this city with white, i. e. bare, feet.) The commentators have hitherto always explained it bymatrona stola alba, seucandida,vestita, (a matron clad in a white, or glistening-white, robe), because, asHeindorfputs it, no other interpretation is to hand. But really there are several possible explanations on similar lines. It might be for “canuscunnus”, (hoary, aged; organ) (Martial, bk. IX. 38., bk. II. 34.), though again the meaning ofdepilatus(free of hair), in another sense, might equally well be at the bottom of this, as is the case withcana labra(hoary, white, lips)—IX. 28. Oralbus(white) may be taken as synonymous withincreta,cerussata(whitened with chalk, painted with ceruse), to whichMartialsupplies the explanation, when he says (III. 42.),Lomento rugas uteri quod condere tentas,Polla, tibi ventrem, non mihi labra linis;(When you endeavour to hide the wrinkles on your stomach with powder, ’tis your own belly, Polla, not my lips, you smear with the stuff),—as also bk. IX. 3., Illasiligineispinguescit adulteracunnis, (It—i. e. your penis—in adulterous loves, grows fat on women’s organs powdered with fine wheaten flour); [but another way of taking the line is: She, i. e. your mistress,—adulterous dame, grows fat on wheaten cakes—cakes baked in the shape ofcunni.] TheLomentum, which is not derived fromlavimentumorlavamentum(something to wash with), as Scheller, following Voss, makes it to be, but from the Greek λείωμα faba communita (groundbeans), was bean-meal (Vegetius, De re veterin. V. 62., says: in subtilissimo lomento, hoc est farina fabacea, (in the finestlomentum, that is bean-flour.); and at the present day the Japanese, it seems, according toThunberg, use a kind of bean-meal instead of soap. Roman ladies were most careful to maintain theaequor ventris(smoothness of the belly)—Aulus Gellius, Noctes Att. I. 2.); whenceMartial, (III. 72.) says, addressing Laufella, who refuses to bathe with him:Aut tibi pannosae pendent a pectore mammaeAutsulcos uteriprodere nuda times.(Either your breasts hang flabby from your bosom, or you fear, if you strip, to betray the furrows on your belly.) To obviate wrinkles on the face, they sprinkled their faces with chalk; and soPetronius, (Satyr. ch. 23.) says: et inter rugas malarum tantum erat cretae, ut putares detectum parietem nimbo laborare, (and amidst the wrinkles of the cheeks was so much chalk, that you would think a partition-wall had been stripped and was wrapped in a cloud of dust); and we read inLucian’spoem (Greek Anthology, Bk. II. tit. 9.) μὴ τοίνυν τὸ πρόσωπον ἅπαν ψιμύθῳ κατάπλαττε. (Now don’t besmear all your face with ceruse). However ifcunnus mustbe taken as equivalent tofemina(a woman), it would be on all fours withalbus amicus(white, white-faced, friend) inMartial(bk. X. 12.), whichFarnabiusexplains by σκιατρόφος (reared in the shade, delicate), answering more or less to our “Whey-face”. At any rateanyof these interpretations are for certain nearer the truth than thestola alba(clad ina white robe) one.221Italae nonnullae se depiles tangere amant circa partes hymenaeo sacras,veritae foetationem morpionum(Some Italian women like to feel the skin bare of hair round those parts that are sacred to marriage,fearing the foul breeding of lice), writesRolfink, “Ordo et methodus generationi dicat. partium cognoscendi fabricam,” (Orderly and Systematic Knowledge of the Structure of the Parts devoted to Procreation). Jena 1664. 4to., p. 185. This may have been one motive among the Ancients also for the removal of the hair, for Aristotle in his time (Hist. Anim. bk. V. ch. 25.) is acquainted with felt-lice (crabs), and calls them φθεῖρες ἄγριοι (wild lice), without however mentioning what part of the person they infest. His words are: ἔστι δὲ γένος φθειρῶν,οἳ καλοῦνται ἄγριοι, καὶ σκληρότεροι τῶν ἐν τοῖς πολλοῖς γιγνομένων· εἰσὶ δὲ οὗτοι καὶ δυσαφαίρετοι ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος. (There is another kind of lice,called wild lice, and more troublesome than the common sort. It is most difficult to rid the body of these).Celsus, De re medica bk. VI. chs. 6. and 15., mentions them as occurring in the eye-lashes: Genus quoque vitii est, qui inter pilos palpebrarum pediculi nascuntur. φθειρίασιν Graeci nominant. (There is another kind of taint, lice that breed among the hair of the eyelids; it is called in Greek φθειρίασις—lousiness.)222Lockervitzens, Christ.Disp. II on Circumcision, Witepsk 1679. 4to.—Antonius, Dissertation on the Circumcision of the Gentiles, Leipzig 1682. 4to.—Grapius, Did Abraham borrow Circumcision from the Egyptians? Rostock 1699. 4to. Jena 1722. 4to.—Vogel, Graduation Exercise on Questions as to the Advantages of the Medical Employment of Circumcision, Göttingen 1763. 4to.—Hofmann, On Circumcision as deserving of the name of an Old Testament Sacrament. Altorf 1770. 4to.—Ackermann, J. Ch. G., “Aufsätze über die Beschneidung” (Essays on Circumcision) inWeise’s“Materialien für Gottesgelahrtheit und Religion,” (Materials for Theological and Religious Study), 1 vol. Gera 1784. 8vo., pp. 50 sqq. comp.Blumenbach’sMed. Biblioth. Vol. I. p. 482.—Meiners, Christ., De circumcisionis origine et causis, (On the Origin and Reasons of Circumcision), in Commentat. Societ. Göttingen Vol. XIV. pp. 207 sqq.—Borhek, “Is Circumcision Hebraic by First Origin? and What prompted Abraham to its Introduction? A Historico-exegetical Enquiry,” Duisburg and Lemgo 1793. 8vo.—Bauer, F. W.“Description of the Religious Constitution of the Ancient Jews.” Leipzig 1805. large 8vo. Vol. I. pp. 76 sqq.—Cohen, Moses,“Dissertation on Circumcision, regarded under its Religious, Hygienic and Pathological Aspects”. Paris 1816. 4to.—Brück, A. Th.“A Word on the Advantages of Circumcision,” in Rust’s Magaz. Vol. VII. 1820. pp. 222-28.—Hofmann, A. G.in Ersch and Gruber’s “Encyclopaedie”,Circumcision, Vol. IX, (1822) pp. 265-70.—Autenrieth, J. H., “Treatise on the Origin of Circumcision among savage and semi-savage Peoples, with reference to the Circumcision of the Israelites; together with a Critique by C. Chr. von Flatt.” Tübingen 1829, large 8vo.

180Comp.Foot, “Abh. über die Lustseuche” (Treatise on Venereal Disease), transl. from the English byH. Ch. Reich, Vol. I. p. 62.

181Surgeon in Chief of the Esbekieh Hospital at Cairo.

182The passage ofAretaeus(Morb. chron. bk. II. ch. 13. edit. Kühn p. 180.) can hardly be cited as evidence on the other side in this case, as the question there discussed is elephantiasis, not the leprosy of the Jews at all. Any how we read there: τρίχες ἐν μὲν τῷ παντὶ προτεθνήσκουσι, χερσὶ μηροῖσι κνήμῃσι, αὖθις ἥβῃ, γενείοισι ἀραιαὶ, ψεδναὶ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ κόμαι· τὸ δὲ μᾶλλον πρόωροι, πολιοὶ καὶ φαλάκρωσις ἀθρόη· οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν δὲ ἥβη καὶ ἐπιμίμνοιεν παυραὶ τρίχες, ἀπρεπέστεραι τῶν ἀποιχομένων. (Hair dies first in every part, on hands, thighs, shins; again on pubes and cheeks it becomes thin, and scanty also on the head. The locks are prematurely white, and baldness becomes general; nor is it long before pubes and cheeks are bare, and if a few scanty hairs should remain, they are uncomely as compared with those that have disappeared). Nor would it be any fairer to cite the fact that Albinos are covered over the whole body with a fine, white, woolly hair.

183AlreadyJ. D. Michaelis, “Fragen an eine Gesellschaft gelehrter Männer, die auf Befehl Ihro Majestät des Königs von Dänemark nach Arabien reisen,” (Questions addressed to a Society of Learned Men, travelling at the Command of HM. the King of Denmark to Arabia), Frankfurt-on-the-Main 1762., p. 23., says in the 11th. question on Leprosy under head No. 8.: “Does it possess a natural diagnostic mark in this, if it breaks out everywhere at once, and covers the whole body? From Leviticus XIII. 12-13. we might seem to be almost justified in concluding this to be so. But I am in doubt how in that case this passage is to be interpreted in accordance with the history of the disease.” Comp. p. 335. Note 1.

184Philosoph. Transactions Vol. XXXI.Foot, Treatise on Venereal Disease, Vol. I. pp. 25 sqq.

185D. Hennen, Sketches of the Medical Topography of the Mediterranean. London 1830.

186Galen, De febr. diff., bk. I., edit. Kühn Vol. VII. 284 sqq., δριμὺ δ’ἀποῤῥοῖ καὶ δακνῶδες περίττωμα τοῖς ἤτοι κακοχυμοτέροις, ἢ ἐδέσματα μοχθηρὰ προσφερομένοις τοιαῦτα γοῦν ἐδέσματα καὶ νῦν ἀναγκασθέντες ἐσθίειν πολλοὶ διὰ λιμὸν οἱ μὲν ἀπέθανον ἀπὸ σηπεδονωδῶν τε καὶ λοιμωδῶν πυρετῶν,οἱ δὲ ἐξανθήμασιν ἑάλωσαν ψωρώδεσι τε καὶ λεπρώδεσιν. (But there discharges an acrid and biting excretion, and this in patients already only too much afflicted with evil humours, or else food becomes noxious to them, though normally able to tolerate such food; and now being forced to eat, many died in consequence of the plague, some from putrefying and pestilential fevers, while others againwere attacked by exanthematic eruptions of the psora and lepra types).

187Martial, Bk. VI. Epigr. 37.,O quantascabiemiser laborat!Culum non habet, est tamen cinaedus.(How sad a scurvy (scabies) does the wretch groan under! Bottom all gone; and yet he is a cinaedus!)Bk. XI. Epigr. 8.,Penelopae licet esse tibi sub principe NervaSed prohibetscabiesingeniumque vetus.(You may be a Penelope under Nerva as Emperor; only thatscurvyhinders you and inveterate viciousness). Themala scabies(horrid scurvy) fromHorace, Ars Poet. 453., is familiar; as well as the statement ofJustin(Hist. XXXVI. 2.) to the effect that the Jews were driven out of Egypt on account of Scabies and Vitiligo (Tetter), that the Egyptians might not be infected by them. Comp.Michaelis, “Mosaisches Recht”, (Mosaic Law) IV. 209. The infectious nature of psora is declared also byAristotle, Problem. VII. 8.Galen, De puls. diff., IV. 1. The transition ofmentagraintopsorahas been already mentioned.

187Martial, Bk. VI. Epigr. 37.,

O quantascabiemiser laborat!Culum non habet, est tamen cinaedus.

O quantascabiemiser laborat!

Culum non habet, est tamen cinaedus.

(How sad a scurvy (scabies) does the wretch groan under! Bottom all gone; and yet he is a cinaedus!)

Bk. XI. Epigr. 8.,

Penelopae licet esse tibi sub principe NervaSed prohibetscabiesingeniumque vetus.

Penelopae licet esse tibi sub principe Nerva

Sed prohibetscabiesingeniumque vetus.

(You may be a Penelope under Nerva as Emperor; only thatscurvyhinders you and inveterate viciousness). Themala scabies(horrid scurvy) fromHorace, Ars Poet. 453., is familiar; as well as the statement ofJustin(Hist. XXXVI. 2.) to the effect that the Jews were driven out of Egypt on account of Scabies and Vitiligo (Tetter), that the Egyptians might not be infected by them. Comp.Michaelis, “Mosaisches Recht”, (Mosaic Law) IV. 209. The infectious nature of psora is declared also byAristotle, Problem. VII. 8.Galen, De puls. diff., IV. 1. The transition ofmentagraintopsorahas been already mentioned.

188Aristophanes, Birds 151. makes Euelpides say: βδελλύττομαι τὸν Λέπρεον ἀπὸ Μελανθίου (I detest the “Leprean” of Melanthius), on which the Scholiast remarks: Μελάνθιος ὁ τραγικός· κωμωδεῖται γὰρ εἰς μαλακίαν καὶ ὀψοφαγίαν. Πλάτων δὲ αὐτὸν ἐν Σκύθαις ὡςλάλονσκώπτει· εἶχε δὲ Μελάνθιος λέπραν. (Melanthius the Tragedian; for he is derided on account of his luxurious living and gluttony. But Plato laughs at him in the “Scythians” as agarrulousperson; now Melanthius hadleprosy). The same thing is mentioned in the “Peace”, 803., with the addition, καὶ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐν Κόλαξιν Εὔπολις ὡς κίναιδον αὐτὸν διαβάλλει καὶ κόλακα· ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς λευκὰς ἔχοντα καὶ λεπράς. (and still more severely does Eupolis in his “Flatterers” ridicule him as beingpathicand a flatterer; moreover as having whites,—white leprosies,—and leprosies). Here we would particularly call attention to the λευκαί (white leprosies), which we have already noted as a consequence of the habits of thecunnilingue; and with this the λάλον (garrulous, talkative) of the Comic poet Plato agrees very well, forHesychiusexplains γλωσσοστροφεῖν (to ply the tongue) byπεριλαλεῖνand στωμύλλεσθαι (to be very talkative, to babble). Thusleprawould seem to be attached as penalty to the vice of the pathic, Elephantiasis is stated to be infectious byAretaeus, Morb. chron., II. 12. andPaulus Aegineta, IV. 1.; however, present day experience tells us nothing of this, and the later Greek physicians refer it again to deficient gall (Marx, Orig. contag., p. 78.); what was the meaning of its great contagiousness in earlier times?

189Von Roeser, loco citato p. 69. Inflammation of the throat, or ulcerations of the throat, are very rare; still rarer are diseases of the bones, and then only taking the form of swellings of the periosteum.

190Hippocrates, Epidem. Bk. III., edit. Kühn Vol. III. p. 486., στόματα πολλοῖσιν ἀθώδεα, ἑλκώδεα· ῥεύματα περὶ τὰ αἰδοιᾶ πολλά· ἑλκώματα, φύματα, ἔξωθεν ἔσωθεν τὰ περὶ βουβῶνας, ὀφθαλμίαι ὑγραὶ, μακραὶ χρόνιαι μετὰ πόνων· ἐπιφύσεις βλεφάρων ἔξωθεν ἔσωθεν, πολλῶν φθείροντες τὰς ὄψιας, ἃ σῦκα ἐπονομάζουσιν· ἐφύετο δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀλλῶν ἑλκέων πολλὰ καὶ αἰδοίοισιν. (for translation see text above).

191Hippocrates, Bk. IV. Aphor. 82., edit. Kühn Vol. III. p. 735., ὁκόσοισιν ἐν τῇ οὐρήθρῃ φύματα φύεται, τουτέοισι διαπυήσαντος καὶ ἐκραγέντος λύσις. (for translation see text above). The same Aphorism is repeated again Bk. VII. Aphor. 57. p. 763., ὁκόσοισιν ἐν τῇ οὐρήθρῃ φύματα γίνονται, τουτέοισι διαπυήσαντος καὶ ἐκραγέντοςλύεται ὁ πόνος. (Patients having abscesses in the urethra,find relief from the suffering, so soon as these have suppurated and broken).—Celsus, bk. II. ch. 8. translates this by: Quibus in fistula urinae minuti abscessus, quos φύματα Graeci vocant, esse coeperunt, iis ubi pus ea parte profluxit, sanitas redditur. (Patients in whom small abscesses have been set up in the urinary canal, which the Greeks call φύματα, recover when once matter has flowed out at the spot).—Galen, in his Explanation of the first Aphorism of Hippocrates (edit. Kühn Vol. XVII. B. p. 778.) says: πρόχειρον γὰρ παντὶ γνῶναι τῶν ἐν τῷ πόρῳ τῷ οὐρητικῷ τῷ κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον, τοῦτο γὰρ οὐρήθραν καλοῦσι· συνισταμένων φυμάτων τὴν λύσιν γίγνεσθαι ῥαγέντων· ἐνδέχεται γὰρ ἰσχουρίαν δή τινα γενέσθαι καὶ διὰ τὸ τοιοῦτον φῦμα καὶ μέντοι καὶ ὡς τὸ φῦμα τοῦτο ῥαγὲνἰάσεται τὴν ἰσχουρίαν εὔδηλον. (For it is within the knowledge of every observer that in the case of abscesses that have been set up in the urinary canal in the region of the privates,—called the urethra,—relief is afforded when once these have burst. For it is likely some retention of urine occurs on account of such abscess, and so the fact of this abscess having burst will obviously remedy the retention). Comp.Galen, De loc. affect. Bk. I. ch. 1., bk. VI. ch. 6.Paulus Aeginetabk. IV. ch. 22.

192Hippocrates, Coact. praenot., edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 312., οἷσι δὲ φῦμα περὶ τὴν κύστιν ἐστὶ τὸ παρέχον τὴν δυσουπίην, παντοίως σχηματισθέντες ὀχλέονται·λύσις δὲ τούτου γίνεται πύου ῥαγέντος. (Patients having an abscess in the region of the bladder that causes difficulty of micturition, find themselves troubled and affected in all sorts of ways;but relief from this is experienced, when once the matter has broken out).

193Hippocrates, De aere aquis et locis, edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 526., κἢν μὲν τὸ θέρος αὐχμηρὸν γένηται, θᾶσσον παύονται αἱ νοῦσοι· ἢν δὲ ἔπομβρον, πολυχρόνιοι γίνονται καὶ φαγεδαίνας κοινῶς ἐγγίνεσθαι ἀπὸ πάσης προφάσιος, ἢν ἕλκος ἐγγένηται. (And if the Summer is a dry one, the diseases will cease more speedily; if on the other hand it is rainy, they become chronic, and such that cancerous sores are set up on any pretext, if an injury of any sort occur).

194Galen, in his Commentary on this passage (Vol. XVII. A. p. 671) says in this connection: διεσήπετο δ’ὑπὸ τῶν μοχθηρῶν χυμῶν ὑγρῶν τὰ στερεά· ποικίλον δ’ εἶναι τὸ ῥεῦμα διὰ τὴν τῶν σηπομένων διαφθορὰν εὔλογον· ὑπὸ γὰρ κοινῆς αἰτίας τῆς σηπεδόνος ἕκαστον τῶν σηπομένων ἴδιον εἶδος ἴσχει τῆς διαφθορᾶς. (But under influence of the morbid moist juices the solid parts rotted away; so it is only reasonable to expect the discharge to be complex, resulting from the destruction of the parts rotted away; for although proceeding from one common cause, that of decomposition, each of the rotting parts has its own particular form of decomposition).

195Galen, in his Commentary loco citato p. 672., adds: φοβερωτέραν εἶχε φαντασίαν ἐν τοῖς περὶ κεφαλὴν μορίοις, διὰ τὸ κᾂν βραχὺ τὴν παρὰ φύσιν ἐνταῦθα παραλαχθείη, πλέον γίνεσθαι τὸ αἶσχος ἢ κατὰ τὰ ἄλλα μόρια μεγάλην ἐκτροπὴν εἰς τὸ παρὰ φύσιν ἔχοντα. μηροῦ μὲν γὰρ τὸ βραχίονος ἢ κνήμης ἢ πήχεως ἀποῤῥυὲν δέρμα μικροτέραν ἔχει φαντασίαν, εἰ δὲ τῆς κεφαλῆς συναποπέσοιεν αἱ τρίχες τῷ δέρματι καὶ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἡ τοῦ γενείου σὺν αὐταῖς, ἡ μὲν φαντασία τοῦ πάθους γίνεται μεγάλη, ὁ κίνδυνος δ’ᾗττον ἢ εἰ περὶ αἰδοῖα συμβαίη τὸ τοιοῦτον πάθος ἢ λάρυγγα καὶ θώρακαα καὶ τι τῶν κυρίων· οὐ μόνον δὲ τὰ περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν οὕτως γινόμενα φοβερὰ μᾶλλον ἦν ἢ κακίω, ἀλλὰ καὶ καθ’ ὁτιοῦν ἄλλο μέρος οὕτως ἐκπίπτοντα· κακίω γὰρ ἦν ἐφ’ὧν ἀπέστησεν εἰς τὸ βάθος ὁ τὸ ἐρυσίπελας ἐργαζόμενος χυμὸς κ. τ. λ. (It offered a more terrifying appearance where the parts about the head were affected, because even if only a small deviation occur there from what is normal, the feeling of disgust experienced is greater than in connection with other parts of the body, even when showing a great divergence towards what is abnormal. For the fact of the skin of the thigh being perished, or even when showing of the upper arm, or of the leg, or fore-arm, affords a less formidable appearance, but if the hair fall from the head and the skin along with it, and still more if that of the cheeks and chin go with it, the appearance of injury is very great; but the danger is all the while really less than if the like were to happen to the private parts or larynx and thorax or any of the vital parts. And not only are such things when they happen to the head more terrifying than actually dangerous, but also when it so falls out with regard to any other part; for much more dangerous is the case of those in whom the humour that sets up erysipelas has penetrated deeply in, etc.).

196Hippocrates, loco citato p. 284., πολλοῖσι μὲν γὰρ βραχίων καὶ πῆχυς ὅλος [ὅλως] περιεῤῥύη· οἷσι δ’ἐπὶ τὰ πλευρὰ ταῦτα ἐκακοῦτο ἢ τῶν ἔμπροσθέν τι ἢ τῶν ὄπισθεν· οἷσι δὲ ὅλος ὁ μηρὸς ἢ τὰ περικνήμια ἐψιλοῦτο καὶ ποὺς ὅλος· ἢν δὲ πάντων χαλεπώτατον τῶν τοιούτων, ὅτε περὶ ἥβην καὶ αἰδοῖα γενοίατο, καὶ τὰ μὲν περὶ ἕλκεα καὶ μετὰ προφάσιος τοιαῦτα· πολλοῖσι δὲ ἐν πυρετοῖσι καὶ πρὸ πυρετοῦ καὶ ἐπὶ πυρετοῖσι ξυνέπιπτεν. (for translation see text above). For ἢ τὰ περικνήμια ἐψιλοῦτο should evidently be read more correctly withGalen, De temperam. bk. I., edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 532. ἢ τὰ περὶ τὴν κνήμην ἀπεψιλοῦτο.

197Galen, Vol. XVII. A. p. 674., Καὶ χωρὶς λοιμώδους καταστάσεως, ὅταν ἐν τούτοις τοῖς χωρίοις ἤτοι φλεγμονή τις ἢ ἐρυσίπελας γένηται, ῥᾷστά τε σήπεται καὶ συμπαθείας ἐργάζεται τῶν ὑπερκειμένων μορίων· διὸ καὶ πολλάκις ἀναγκαζόμεθαμετὰ τὸ περικόψαι τὰ σεσηπότα τὴν χώραν ἐκκαίειν· οὐδὲν οὖν θαυμαστὸν, τοιαύτης καταστάσεως γινομένης ὡς καὶ βραχίονα καὶ μηρὸν καὶ κνήμην, πλευράν τε καὶ κεφαλὴν διασήπειν, ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἥκειν κακώσεως τὰ περὶ αἰδοῖα .... Ἄχρι τοῦ νῦν ὁ λόγος αὐτῷ γέγονε περὶ τῶν ἐρυσιπελάτων, ὅσα δ’ἕλκωσιν ἤ τι μικρὸν οὕτως ἄλλο τῶν ἔξωθεν αἰτίων συνέστη· ἐφεξῆς δὲ περὶ τῶν ἄνευ τοιαύτης αἰτίας γενομένων ποιήσεται τὸν λόγον. (for translation see text above).

198Hippocrates moreover, Aphorism. Vol. I. p. 724., says: τοῦ δὲ θέρεος ... καὶσηπεδόνες αἰδοίωνκαὶ ἵδρωα. (And in the Summer ... occur alsoputrefactions of the privatesand transpirations).

199Very possibly in many cases these affections of the extremities and genital organs owed their existence toanthraxorcarbuncle; for not only doesHippocrates(p. 487.) say that ἄνθρακες πολλοὶ κατὰ θέρος καὶ ἄλλα ἃ σὴψ καλέεται (many cases of malignant pustule in Summer-time, as well as other complaints known under the general name of putrefaction) appeared under these meteorological conditions, butGalenlikewise (Method. med. bk. XIV., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 980.) observed ananthraxepidemic in Asia, that itself began with numerousphlyctaenae(blisterous swellings) resembling millet seeds; these subsequently broke and gave rise to an ἕλκος ἐσχαρῶδες (scabby sore). Indeed the destruction of the skin took place even without the previous occurrence ofphlyctaenae. πολλάκις δὲ οὐ μίαφλύκταιναγεννᾶται κνησαμένων, ἀλλὰπολλαὶμικραὶ καθάπερ τινὲς κέγχροι καταπυκνοῦσαι τὸ μέρος ὧν ἐκρηγνυμένων ὁμοίως ἐσχαρῶδες ἕλκος γεννᾶται· κατὰδὲ τοὺς ἐπιδημήσαντας ἄνθρακας ἐν Ἀσίᾳ καὶ χωρὶς φλυκταινῶνἐνίοις εὐθέως ἀπεδάρη τὸ δέρμα. (And oftennot one phlyctaenais originated on patients scratching themselves, butmanyminute ones like millet seeds, closely covering the affected part; and when these have broken, a kind of scabby sore is produced. And in cases ofanthrax(malignant pustule), which was at one time epidemic in Asia, in some patients even without there having been previousphlyctaenae, the skin was immediately destroyed).—Comp.Galen, De tumor. praeternat. Vol. VII. p. 719. Further, this information is in any case of importance for the more correct appreciation of the facts as to the Plague of Athens.

200Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, bk. II. ch. 49., Διεξῄει γὰρ διὰ παντὸς τοῦ σώματος ἄνωθεν ἀρξάμενον τὸ ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ πρώτον ἱδρυθὲν κακόν· καὶ εἴ τις ἐκ τῶν μεγίστων περιγένοιτο, τῶν γε ἀκρωτηρῖων ἀντίληψιςαὐτὸνἐπεσήμαινε· κατέσκηπτε γὰρ ἐς αἰδοῖα καὶ ἐς ἄκρας χεῖρας καὶ πόδας· καὶ πολλοὶ στερισκόμενοι τούτων διέφευγον· (for translation see text above). In this passage it is usual to read ἀντίληψιςαὐτοῦἐπεσήμαινε, supplying κακοῦ from the previous clause to go with αὐτοῦ—(the seizure of the disease itself on the extremities manifested itself); but even supposing the double genitive with ἀντίληψις defensible, the construction is still very awkward, and is made still more so by the fact that in taking it this way we are compelled to translate ἐπεσήμαινε by “manifested itself” (mali vis, apprehendens extremas corporis partes se prodebat, manifestam faciebat,—the strength of the disease declared itself, made itself manifest, in seizing the extremities of the body,—is Wittenbach’s interpretation, Select. Hist. p. 367.), without by so doing obtaining any clear meaning of the sentence. On the other hand this is got directly we read withReiske(Annotations p. 21. in his “Thucydides Reden, übersetzt von Reiske, nebst lateinischen Anmerkungen über dessen gesammtes Werk,”—Speeches in Thucydides translated into German by Reiske, together with Latin Notes on his “Histories” generally, Leipzig 1761. 8vo.) ἀντίληψιςαὐτὸνἐπεσήμαινε,—a seizure put its mark on him. But whether αὐτοῦ is read or αὐτὸν in any case it will be impossible to take the sentence asKraus, p. 54., has done, when he says: “The pustulous suppurative eruption begins with the head and spreads little by little over the entire body even to the hands and feet. The fact that Thucydides had the eruption especially in his mind when he speaks of the gradual spread of the evil throughout the whole body is shown by the expressions chosen by him “The disease goes through the entire body andmarks(ἐπεσήμαινε) hands and feet.” Now by what other of the symptoms mentioned would the affection of the hands and feet have been likely to make itself evident except by the eruption?” There must surely be few readers of Thucydides capable of putting so radically false an interpretation on the Historian’s words.

201Lucretius, De rerum natura bk. VI. 1205 sqq.

202Kraus, “Ueber das Alter der Menschenpocken,“—(On the Antiquity of Small-pox), Hanover 1825., pp. 54 sqq.

203Paulinus Fabius, Praelectiones Marciae, etc. 352 (but hedefendshis accuracy, as do Lambinus and Mercurialis),—ScuderiPt. I. p. 126. To these we may addPetr. Victorius, Variar. lect. bk. XXXV. ch. 8.

204As in the Antonine Plague in the year 235 A. D.,—Galen, De usu part. III. ch. 5., De prob. pravisque alimentor. succ. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. VI. p. 749.;Cyprian, Works, Venice 1728. fol., p. 465.—Further noteHecquet, “Obs. sur la chute des os du pied dans une femme attaquée d’une fèvre maligne,” (Observations on the Falling in of the Bones of the Foot in the case of a Woman attacked by a Malignant Fever), in Memoires de Paris 1746. Histor. p. 40.—J. C. Brebis, De sphacelo totius fere faciei post superatam febrem malignam oborto, (On the Mortification of almost the whole Face supervening after Recovery from a Malignant Fever), in Act. Acad. N. C. Vol. IV. p. 206.—Percival(Samml. auserles. Abh. Vol. XV. p. 335.) observed during an epidemic of putrid fever at Manchester many patients with violent erysipelas on the face and head; and in the Typhus epidemics of 1806-1813,von Hildebrand(“Ueber den ansteckenden Typhus,”—On infectious Typhus), 2nd. edition, Vienna 1814., p. 200. andHorn(“Erfahrungen über die Heilung des ansteckenden Nerven-und Lazarethfiebers,”) (Experiences in the Cure of infections Nervous and Hospital Fevers), 2nd. edition, Berlin 1814., pp. 49, 71. saw violent inflammations of an erysipelas character set up in the nose, elbows, fingers and particularly the toes of their patients, which rapidly passed over into mortification.

205A further, question arises whether we should not read, instead of κατέσκηπτε γὰρ καὶ ἐς τὰ αἰδοῖα (for it attacked the genitals also), κατέσκηπτε γὰρκακὸνἐς τὰ αἰδοῖα (for mischief, evil, attacked the genitals).

206Joseph Franc, Prax. med. univ. praecept. Pt. I. Vol. III. sect. 2., Typhus, ch. 2. § 4. Note 11. Observation 108., says: “Notwithstanding the fact that in the General Hospital of Vienna Venereal patients were separated from others, yet it often happened at the time I was Physician in Chief there, that patients suffering from concealed Venereal disease or paying patients were admitted into the common Wards. Now if one or the other got typhus, or if such a patient was already lying there, or was brought there,the Venereal cases without exception took the typhus, and particularly so during the mercurial treatment.”

207Schönlein, “Vorlesungen”, (Prelections), Vol. II. p. 48., “The syphilitic exanthema either remains stationary when typhus arises, or disappears instantly and for ever—or the part affected with syphilis becomes gangrenous.”Neumann, “Specielle Pathologie und Therapie”, (Special Pathology and Therapeutics), Vol. II. p. 107., “Violent, severe typhoïdal fevers cure syphilis completely; its symptoms disappear with the commencement of the illness and never return.—Again after Petechial fever I have in most cases observed that the syphilis troubles that disappeared at its commencement never came back again.”Historicalvouchers will be afforded in plenty by our later investigations.

208Works, Vol. I. p. 765. Epistola ad Amunem, monachum. (Letter to Amunis, a monk).

209Euripides, Alcestis 98.,πυλῶν πάροιθεν δ’οὐχ ὁρῶπηγαῖον ὡς νομίζεταιχέρνιβ’ἐπὶ φθιτῶν πύλαις,χαίτα τ’οὔτις ἐπὶ προθύροιςτομαῖος, ἃ δὴ νεκύωνπένθει πιτνεῖ.(Before the doors I see no lustral water from the fountain, as is wont at the doors of the departed, and in the forecourt is no shorn hair, which is ever cut in mourning for the dead.) Comp.Kirchmann, De funeribus Rom. (On Roman Funerals) bk. I. last ch., bk. II, ch. 15.Lomeier, De veterum gentil. lustrationibus (On Public Purifications among the Ancients), ch. 16.Casaubon, On the “Characters” of Theophrastus, ch. 16.

209Euripides, Alcestis 98.,

πυλῶν πάροιθεν δ’οὐχ ὁρῶπηγαῖον ὡς νομίζεταιχέρνιβ’ἐπὶ φθιτῶν πύλαις,χαίτα τ’οὔτις ἐπὶ προθύροιςτομαῖος, ἃ δὴ νεκύωνπένθει πιτνεῖ.

πυλῶν πάροιθεν δ’οὐχ ὁρῶ

πηγαῖον ὡς νομίζεται

χέρνιβ’ἐπὶ φθιτῶν πύλαις,

χαίτα τ’οὔτις ἐπὶ προθύροις

τομαῖος, ἃ δὴ νεκύων

πένθει πιτνεῖ.

(Before the doors I see no lustral water from the fountain, as is wont at the doors of the departed, and in the forecourt is no shorn hair, which is ever cut in mourning for the dead.) Comp.Kirchmann, De funeribus Rom. (On Roman Funerals) bk. I. last ch., bk. II, ch. 15.Lomeier, De veterum gentil. lustrationibus (On Public Purifications among the Ancients), ch. 16.Casaubon, On the “Characters” of Theophrastus, ch. 16.

210It may be mentioned by way of supplement that Leprosy among the Ancients was pretty nearly universally regarded as a punishment from the gods. Even the Greeks held this view, as comes out clearly fromAeschylus, Choeph. II. 2. This fact points to various conclusions as to liability to infection in Leprosy and the obscurity in which the causes of the disease are involved.

211In accordance with the explanations given on a previous page it might be thought quite conceivable that so long as the hymen was intact, a part of the mucous discharge of the vagina and of the menstrual blood was retained, and acquired a certain degree of malignity. This acting on points of the penis where the surface had been accidentally broken in the act of defloration, or even on the mucous membrane of the urethra, might exert an injurious influence.

212Euripides, Iphigeneia in Tauris 380.Porphyrius, bk. II. περὶ Ἀποχῆς (On Abstinence),Dio Chrysostom, Homily XIII, on Epist. to Ephesians.—Theophrastus, Charact. ch. 16.—Th. Bartholinus, Antiq. veteris puerperii synopsis (Synopsis of Antiquities of Childbirth in Old Times). Copenhagen 1646. 8vo.

213Deipnosoph. bk. XII. p. 518., Πάντες δὲ οἱ πρὸς ἑσπέραν οἰκοῦντες βάρβαροι πιττοῦνται καὶ ξυροῦνται τὰ σώματα· καὶ παρά γε τοῖς Τυῤῥηνοῖς ἐργαστήρια κατεσκεύασται πολλὰ, καὶ τεχνῖται τούτου τοῦ πράγματός εἰσιν, ὥσπερ παρ’ἡμῖν οἱ κουρεῖς· παρ’οὓς ὅταν εἰσέλθωσι, παρέχουσιν ἑαυτοὺς πάντα τρόπον, οὐδὲν αἰσχυνόμενοι τοὺς ὁρῶντας, οὐ δὲ τοὺς παριόντας· χρῶντοι δὲ τούτῳ τῷ νόμῳ πολλοὶ καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ τῶν τὴν Ἰταλίαν οἰκούντων, μαθόντες παρὰ Σαμνιτῶν καὶ Μεσαπίων. (Now all the Barbarians that dwell towards the West, use pitch as a depilatory, and shave their bodies. Indeed amongst the Tyrrhenians establishments are fitted up in numbers for this purpose, and there are artistes who practise this profession, like barbers among ourselves. And when men go into their shops, they expose themselves in every part, feeling no shame of spectators nor of passers-by. And this custom is followed also by many of the Greeks and of the inhabitants of Italy, who have learned it from Samnites and Messapians). The depilation of men and boys was attended to by women (Martial, XI. 79.) at the period of the highest degree of dissoluteness; in fact there was a special guild of such women, known asustriculae.Tertullian, De pallio ch. 4. In the same way men performed this service for women, as e.g.Domitian, according toSuetonius, ch. 22., Erat fama, quasi concubinas ipse develleret (Rumour went, to the effect that the Emperor used to “pluck” his mistresses with his own hand,)—andHeliogabalusaccording toLampridius, ch. 31., In balneis semper cum mulieribus fuit, ita ut eas ipse psilothro curaret, ipse quoque barbam psilothro accurans, quodque pudendum dictu est, eodem quo mulieres accurabantur, et eadem hora. Rasit et virilia subactoribus suis ad novaculam manu sua, qua postea barbam fecit. (At the baths he was always with the women, going so far as to apply the “psilothrum” (a depilatory) in their treatment himself, finishing off his own beard also with “psilothrum”, and using, disgusting to relate, the same as the women were being treated with, and at one and the same time. Moreover he shaved his debauchees’(pathics) privates to the navel with his own hand, and then shaved his own beard).

214They used to remove the hair on theface(Martial, III. 74.), from thenose(Ovid, Art. Amand. I. 520.), on the arches of theeyebrows(Cicero, Orat. pro Roscio), from the armpits (Juvenal, XIV. 194.,Seneca, Epist. 115.), on thearms(Martial, III. 63.), thehands(Martial, V. 41.), on thelegs(Juvenal, IX. 12.) As to the beard, that has already been spoken of.

215Martial, II. 62., Cui praestas culum, quem, Labiene, pilas. (To whom you give your fundament, Labienus, that you strip of hair).

216Martial, II. 62.,Quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod brachia vellis,Quod cincta est brevibusmentula tonsapilis,Haec praestas, Labiene, tuae, quis nescit? amicae.(You pluck your chest, your legs, your arms, yourshaven memberis surrounded by short hair,—all these pains you offer, everyone knows it, to your mistress.) Bk. IX. 27.,Cumdepilatos, Chrestecoleosportes,Etvulturino mentulam parem collo,Et prostitutis laevius caput culis,Nec vivat ullus in tuo pilus crurePurgentque crebrae cana labra volsellae etc.(For you haveyour testicles freed from hair, Chrestus, andyour member like a vulture’s neck, and your head smoother than those posteriors that you prostitute. Not a hair lives on your leg, and frequent application of the tweezers keeps clean your shaven lips, etc.) Comp. Bk. IX. 48. 58.Suetonius, Otho 12.Persius, IV. 37.Ausonius, 131.

216Martial, II. 62.,

Quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod brachia vellis,Quod cincta est brevibusmentula tonsapilis,Haec praestas, Labiene, tuae, quis nescit? amicae.

Quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod brachia vellis,

Quod cincta est brevibusmentula tonsapilis,

Haec praestas, Labiene, tuae, quis nescit? amicae.

(You pluck your chest, your legs, your arms, yourshaven memberis surrounded by short hair,—all these pains you offer, everyone knows it, to your mistress.) Bk. IX. 27.,

Cumdepilatos, Chrestecoleosportes,Etvulturino mentulam parem collo,Et prostitutis laevius caput culis,Nec vivat ullus in tuo pilus crurePurgentque crebrae cana labra volsellae etc.

Cumdepilatos, Chrestecoleosportes,

Etvulturino mentulam parem collo,

Et prostitutis laevius caput culis,

Nec vivat ullus in tuo pilus crure

Purgentque crebrae cana labra volsellae etc.

(For you haveyour testicles freed from hair, Chrestus, andyour member like a vulture’s neck, and your head smoother than those posteriors that you prostitute. Not a hair lives on your leg, and frequent application of the tweezers keeps clean your shaven lips, etc.) Comp. Bk. IX. 48. 58.Suetonius, Otho 12.Persius, IV. 37.Ausonius, 131.

217Aristophanes, Lysistrat. 151.,Εἰ γὰρ καθῄμεθ’ἔνδον ἐντετριμμέναικἀν τοῖς χιτωνίοισι τοῖς ἀμοργίνοιςγυμναὶ παρίοιμεν,δέλτα παρατετιλμέναι,στύοιντ’ἂν ἅνδρες κἀπιθυμοῖεν πλεκοῦν.(For if we sat within doors anointed with unguents, and if we appeared lightly clad in robes of Amorgian flax,our bellies plucked clear of hair, the men would all have erections, and would be fain to lie with us.) For the same reason Mnesilochus was freed of hair on the genitals and in all other parts of the body, so as not to be recognised in the assemblage of women.

217Aristophanes, Lysistrat. 151.,

Εἰ γὰρ καθῄμεθ’ἔνδον ἐντετριμμέναικἀν τοῖς χιτωνίοισι τοῖς ἀμοργίνοιςγυμναὶ παρίοιμεν,δέλτα παρατετιλμέναι,στύοιντ’ἂν ἅνδρες κἀπιθυμοῖεν πλεκοῦν.

Εἰ γὰρ καθῄμεθ’ἔνδον ἐντετριμμέναι

κἀν τοῖς χιτωνίοισι τοῖς ἀμοργίνοις

γυμναὶ παρίοιμεν,δέλτα παρατετιλμέναι,

στύοιντ’ἂν ἅνδρες κἀπιθυμοῖεν πλεκοῦν.

(For if we sat within doors anointed with unguents, and if we appeared lightly clad in robes of Amorgian flax,our bellies plucked clear of hair, the men would all have erections, and would be fain to lie with us.) For the same reason Mnesilochus was freed of hair on the genitals and in all other parts of the body, so as not to be recognised in the assemblage of women.

218Aristophanes, Eccl. 718., says of prostitutes:καὶ τάς γε δούλας οὐχὶ δεῖ κοσμουμέναςτὴν τῶν ἐλευθέρων ὑφαρπάζειν Κύπριν,ἀλλὰ παρὰ τοῖς δούλοισι κοιμᾶσθαι μόνον.κατωνάκῃτὸν χοῖρον ἀποτετιλμένας.(And the slave-women ought not to bedizen themselves and snatch away the love that is free-women’s by rights; but should lie with slaves only, their pudenda plucked clean to please the wearer of the smock.) Frogs 515., Ξ. πῶς λέγεις; ὀρχηστρίδες; Θ. ἡβυλλιῶσαι κἄρτι παρατετιλμέναι (Xanthius. What say you? dancing-girls? Therap. Yes! young wenches, justplucked clean). Comp. Lysistrat. 88.

218Aristophanes, Eccl. 718., says of prostitutes:

καὶ τάς γε δούλας οὐχὶ δεῖ κοσμουμέναςτὴν τῶν ἐλευθέρων ὑφαρπάζειν Κύπριν,ἀλλὰ παρὰ τοῖς δούλοισι κοιμᾶσθαι μόνον.κατωνάκῃτὸν χοῖρον ἀποτετιλμένας.

καὶ τάς γε δούλας οὐχὶ δεῖ κοσμουμένας

τὴν τῶν ἐλευθέρων ὑφαρπάζειν Κύπριν,

ἀλλὰ παρὰ τοῖς δούλοισι κοιμᾶσθαι μόνον.

κατωνάκῃτὸν χοῖρον ἀποτετιλμένας.

(And the slave-women ought not to bedizen themselves and snatch away the love that is free-women’s by rights; but should lie with slaves only, their pudenda plucked clean to please the wearer of the smock.) Frogs 515., Ξ. πῶς λέγεις; ὀρχηστρίδες; Θ. ἡβυλλιῶσαι κἄρτι παρατετιλμέναι (Xanthius. What say you? dancing-girls? Therap. Yes! young wenches, justplucked clean). Comp. Lysistrat. 88.

219Martial, bk. XII. Epigr. 32.,Nec plena turpi matris olla resinaSummoenianae qua pilantur uxores.(Nor yet your mother’s jars full of foul resin, wherewith the suburban dames free themselves of hair.)

219Martial, bk. XII. Epigr. 32.,

Nec plena turpi matris olla resinaSummoenianae qua pilantur uxores.

Nec plena turpi matris olla resina

Summoenianae qua pilantur uxores.

(Nor yet your mother’s jars full of foul resin, wherewith the suburban dames free themselves of hair.)

220Martial, bk. X. Epigr. 90.,Quid vellisvetulum, Ligella,cunnum?Quid busti cineres tui lacessis?Talesmunditiaedecent puellas.Erras, si tibi cunnus hic videtur,Ad quem mentula pertinere desit.(Why pluck you bare, Ligella,your old organ? why vex you the ashes of your tomb? Suchnice allurementsare for girls. You are mistaken if you think yours is of a sort that a man’s member should be fain to belong to it.) This passage, together with those quoted a little above from Aristophanes and Theopompus, will explain sufficiently whatHorace(Sat. I. 2. v. 36.) meant by his “miratorcunniCupienniusalbi,” (Cupiennius admirer of awhite organ), for thealbus(white) here evidently stands forrasus,depilatus,nudus, (shaven, freed from hair, bare); as inJuvenal, Sat. I. 111., Nuper in hanc urbempedibusqui veneratalbis, (Who but now had arrived in this city with white, i. e. bare, feet.) The commentators have hitherto always explained it bymatrona stola alba, seucandida,vestita, (a matron clad in a white, or glistening-white, robe), because, asHeindorfputs it, no other interpretation is to hand. But really there are several possible explanations on similar lines. It might be for “canuscunnus”, (hoary, aged; organ) (Martial, bk. IX. 38., bk. II. 34.), though again the meaning ofdepilatus(free of hair), in another sense, might equally well be at the bottom of this, as is the case withcana labra(hoary, white, lips)—IX. 28. Oralbus(white) may be taken as synonymous withincreta,cerussata(whitened with chalk, painted with ceruse), to whichMartialsupplies the explanation, when he says (III. 42.),Lomento rugas uteri quod condere tentas,Polla, tibi ventrem, non mihi labra linis;(When you endeavour to hide the wrinkles on your stomach with powder, ’tis your own belly, Polla, not my lips, you smear with the stuff),—as also bk. IX. 3., Illasiligineispinguescit adulteracunnis, (It—i. e. your penis—in adulterous loves, grows fat on women’s organs powdered with fine wheaten flour); [but another way of taking the line is: She, i. e. your mistress,—adulterous dame, grows fat on wheaten cakes—cakes baked in the shape ofcunni.] TheLomentum, which is not derived fromlavimentumorlavamentum(something to wash with), as Scheller, following Voss, makes it to be, but from the Greek λείωμα faba communita (groundbeans), was bean-meal (Vegetius, De re veterin. V. 62., says: in subtilissimo lomento, hoc est farina fabacea, (in the finestlomentum, that is bean-flour.); and at the present day the Japanese, it seems, according toThunberg, use a kind of bean-meal instead of soap. Roman ladies were most careful to maintain theaequor ventris(smoothness of the belly)—Aulus Gellius, Noctes Att. I. 2.); whenceMartial, (III. 72.) says, addressing Laufella, who refuses to bathe with him:Aut tibi pannosae pendent a pectore mammaeAutsulcos uteriprodere nuda times.(Either your breasts hang flabby from your bosom, or you fear, if you strip, to betray the furrows on your belly.) To obviate wrinkles on the face, they sprinkled their faces with chalk; and soPetronius, (Satyr. ch. 23.) says: et inter rugas malarum tantum erat cretae, ut putares detectum parietem nimbo laborare, (and amidst the wrinkles of the cheeks was so much chalk, that you would think a partition-wall had been stripped and was wrapped in a cloud of dust); and we read inLucian’spoem (Greek Anthology, Bk. II. tit. 9.) μὴ τοίνυν τὸ πρόσωπον ἅπαν ψιμύθῳ κατάπλαττε. (Now don’t besmear all your face with ceruse). However ifcunnus mustbe taken as equivalent tofemina(a woman), it would be on all fours withalbus amicus(white, white-faced, friend) inMartial(bk. X. 12.), whichFarnabiusexplains by σκιατρόφος (reared in the shade, delicate), answering more or less to our “Whey-face”. At any rateanyof these interpretations are for certain nearer the truth than thestola alba(clad ina white robe) one.

220Martial, bk. X. Epigr. 90.,

Quid vellisvetulum, Ligella,cunnum?Quid busti cineres tui lacessis?Talesmunditiaedecent puellas.Erras, si tibi cunnus hic videtur,Ad quem mentula pertinere desit.

Quid vellisvetulum, Ligella,cunnum?

Quid busti cineres tui lacessis?

Talesmunditiaedecent puellas.

Erras, si tibi cunnus hic videtur,

Ad quem mentula pertinere desit.

(Why pluck you bare, Ligella,your old organ? why vex you the ashes of your tomb? Suchnice allurementsare for girls. You are mistaken if you think yours is of a sort that a man’s member should be fain to belong to it.) This passage, together with those quoted a little above from Aristophanes and Theopompus, will explain sufficiently whatHorace(Sat. I. 2. v. 36.) meant by his “miratorcunniCupienniusalbi,” (Cupiennius admirer of awhite organ), for thealbus(white) here evidently stands forrasus,depilatus,nudus, (shaven, freed from hair, bare); as inJuvenal, Sat. I. 111., Nuper in hanc urbempedibusqui veneratalbis, (Who but now had arrived in this city with white, i. e. bare, feet.) The commentators have hitherto always explained it bymatrona stola alba, seucandida,vestita, (a matron clad in a white, or glistening-white, robe), because, asHeindorfputs it, no other interpretation is to hand. But really there are several possible explanations on similar lines. It might be for “canuscunnus”, (hoary, aged; organ) (Martial, bk. IX. 38., bk. II. 34.), though again the meaning ofdepilatus(free of hair), in another sense, might equally well be at the bottom of this, as is the case withcana labra(hoary, white, lips)—IX. 28. Oralbus(white) may be taken as synonymous withincreta,cerussata(whitened with chalk, painted with ceruse), to whichMartialsupplies the explanation, when he says (III. 42.),

Lomento rugas uteri quod condere tentas,Polla, tibi ventrem, non mihi labra linis;

Lomento rugas uteri quod condere tentas,

Polla, tibi ventrem, non mihi labra linis;

(When you endeavour to hide the wrinkles on your stomach with powder, ’tis your own belly, Polla, not my lips, you smear with the stuff),—as also bk. IX. 3., Illasiligineispinguescit adulteracunnis, (It—i. e. your penis—in adulterous loves, grows fat on women’s organs powdered with fine wheaten flour); [but another way of taking the line is: She, i. e. your mistress,—adulterous dame, grows fat on wheaten cakes—cakes baked in the shape ofcunni.] TheLomentum, which is not derived fromlavimentumorlavamentum(something to wash with), as Scheller, following Voss, makes it to be, but from the Greek λείωμα faba communita (groundbeans), was bean-meal (Vegetius, De re veterin. V. 62., says: in subtilissimo lomento, hoc est farina fabacea, (in the finestlomentum, that is bean-flour.); and at the present day the Japanese, it seems, according toThunberg, use a kind of bean-meal instead of soap. Roman ladies were most careful to maintain theaequor ventris(smoothness of the belly)—Aulus Gellius, Noctes Att. I. 2.); whenceMartial, (III. 72.) says, addressing Laufella, who refuses to bathe with him:

Aut tibi pannosae pendent a pectore mammaeAutsulcos uteriprodere nuda times.

Aut tibi pannosae pendent a pectore mammae

Autsulcos uteriprodere nuda times.

(Either your breasts hang flabby from your bosom, or you fear, if you strip, to betray the furrows on your belly.) To obviate wrinkles on the face, they sprinkled their faces with chalk; and soPetronius, (Satyr. ch. 23.) says: et inter rugas malarum tantum erat cretae, ut putares detectum parietem nimbo laborare, (and amidst the wrinkles of the cheeks was so much chalk, that you would think a partition-wall had been stripped and was wrapped in a cloud of dust); and we read inLucian’spoem (Greek Anthology, Bk. II. tit. 9.) μὴ τοίνυν τὸ πρόσωπον ἅπαν ψιμύθῳ κατάπλαττε. (Now don’t besmear all your face with ceruse). However ifcunnus mustbe taken as equivalent tofemina(a woman), it would be on all fours withalbus amicus(white, white-faced, friend) inMartial(bk. X. 12.), whichFarnabiusexplains by σκιατρόφος (reared in the shade, delicate), answering more or less to our “Whey-face”. At any rateanyof these interpretations are for certain nearer the truth than thestola alba(clad ina white robe) one.

221Italae nonnullae se depiles tangere amant circa partes hymenaeo sacras,veritae foetationem morpionum(Some Italian women like to feel the skin bare of hair round those parts that are sacred to marriage,fearing the foul breeding of lice), writesRolfink, “Ordo et methodus generationi dicat. partium cognoscendi fabricam,” (Orderly and Systematic Knowledge of the Structure of the Parts devoted to Procreation). Jena 1664. 4to., p. 185. This may have been one motive among the Ancients also for the removal of the hair, for Aristotle in his time (Hist. Anim. bk. V. ch. 25.) is acquainted with felt-lice (crabs), and calls them φθεῖρες ἄγριοι (wild lice), without however mentioning what part of the person they infest. His words are: ἔστι δὲ γένος φθειρῶν,οἳ καλοῦνται ἄγριοι, καὶ σκληρότεροι τῶν ἐν τοῖς πολλοῖς γιγνομένων· εἰσὶ δὲ οὗτοι καὶ δυσαφαίρετοι ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος. (There is another kind of lice,called wild lice, and more troublesome than the common sort. It is most difficult to rid the body of these).Celsus, De re medica bk. VI. chs. 6. and 15., mentions them as occurring in the eye-lashes: Genus quoque vitii est, qui inter pilos palpebrarum pediculi nascuntur. φθειρίασιν Graeci nominant. (There is another kind of taint, lice that breed among the hair of the eyelids; it is called in Greek φθειρίασις—lousiness.)

222Lockervitzens, Christ.Disp. II on Circumcision, Witepsk 1679. 4to.—Antonius, Dissertation on the Circumcision of the Gentiles, Leipzig 1682. 4to.—Grapius, Did Abraham borrow Circumcision from the Egyptians? Rostock 1699. 4to. Jena 1722. 4to.—Vogel, Graduation Exercise on Questions as to the Advantages of the Medical Employment of Circumcision, Göttingen 1763. 4to.—Hofmann, On Circumcision as deserving of the name of an Old Testament Sacrament. Altorf 1770. 4to.—Ackermann, J. Ch. G., “Aufsätze über die Beschneidung” (Essays on Circumcision) inWeise’s“Materialien für Gottesgelahrtheit und Religion,” (Materials for Theological and Religious Study), 1 vol. Gera 1784. 8vo., pp. 50 sqq. comp.Blumenbach’sMed. Biblioth. Vol. I. p. 482.—Meiners, Christ., De circumcisionis origine et causis, (On the Origin and Reasons of Circumcision), in Commentat. Societ. Göttingen Vol. XIV. pp. 207 sqq.—Borhek, “Is Circumcision Hebraic by First Origin? and What prompted Abraham to its Introduction? A Historico-exegetical Enquiry,” Duisburg and Lemgo 1793. 8vo.—Bauer, F. W.“Description of the Religious Constitution of the Ancient Jews.” Leipzig 1805. large 8vo. Vol. I. pp. 76 sqq.—Cohen, Moses,“Dissertation on Circumcision, regarded under its Religious, Hygienic and Pathological Aspects”. Paris 1816. 4to.—Brück, A. Th.“A Word on the Advantages of Circumcision,” in Rust’s Magaz. Vol. VII. 1820. pp. 222-28.—Hofmann, A. G.in Ersch and Gruber’s “Encyclopaedie”,Circumcision, Vol. IX, (1822) pp. 265-70.—Autenrieth, J. H., “Treatise on the Origin of Circumcision among savage and semi-savage Peoples, with reference to the Circumcision of the Israelites; together with a Critique by C. Chr. von Flatt.” Tübingen 1829, large 8vo.

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