Chapter 22

273Aristophanes, Wasps 578., παίδων τοίνυν δοκιμαζομένων αἰδοῖα πάρεστι θεᾶσθαι. (Yet when boys are under test, men may see their privates). Comp.Athenaeus, Deipnos. bk. XII. p. 550. Petit, Ad legg. Attic. p. 227. At Rome likewise in cases of marriage disputes the men were obliged to offer their genital organs for examination (Quintilian, Declam. 279.), a Law which was only revoked by Justinian. Comp.GundlingianaNo. 23. pp. 342 sqq. We learn fromPlato, Theaetet. 151., ποίαν χρῆ ποίῳ ἀνδρὶ συνοῦσαν ὡς ἀρίστους παῖδας τίκτειν, (what sort of maid must mate with what sort of man to produce as fine children as may be), that the marriageable girls were examined by the midwives,—a procedure that Plato wished to see universally introduced in his ideal State (De legg. bk. XII.). But against thisTheodoretus, Contra Graecos bk. IX., declaims vigorously.274In any case it is an error to suppose that by this it is implied that the maidens and young men were absolutely naked. They were merely μονόπεπλοι (single-frocked), clothed in a single short frock, slit up at the hips, for which reason they were also known by the name φαινομηρίδες (showing the thighs) (Pollux, Onomastic. VII. 55.), a costume which was pretty much the general Doric one; thusMoerissays δωριάζειν τὸ παραγυμνοῦσθαί τινα μέρη, (to follow Dorian fashions, to expose certain parts). Comp.Meursius, Laconic. bk. I. end.K. O. Müller, The Dorians, IInd. Part pp. 263, 265.Josephus, De special. legg., Works, Vol. II. p. 328. The meaning of γυμνὸς is nothing more than “lightly clad”, in mere underclothing, without outer cloak. SoEubulus, (Athenaeus bk. XIII. p. 568.) says, speaking of the brothel-girls, γυμνάς—ἐν λεπτονήτοις ὑμέσιν ἑστωτας (standing “naked”—in light-spun garments).Aelian, Var. hist. XIII. 37., ἐν χιτωνίσκῳ γυμνὸς, (“naked” in a tunic). Similarlynudus(naked) in Latin, asCuper(Observat. bk. I. ch. 7.) long ago pointed out, often has no other meaning, but merely stands fortunicatus(clad in the tunic), in tunic only, without cloak or toga. We see this very clearly inPetronius, Satir. 55., Aequum est induere nuptam ventum textilem,—Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea. (’Tis right a bride should put on woven wind,—that she should stand openly for sale, “naked” in a linen cloud!) In precisely the same way the Jews use their word עָרֹם (arôm), Isaiah Ch. XX. 2., Job Ch. XXIV. 7. 10. I Samuel ch. XIX. 24., and the Arabs مسلوخ (mesluch).275Plato, Republic, bk. II. p. 405. The Speech ofLysiasὙπὲρ Φανίου contains a passage, preserved for us byAthenaeus, bk. XII. p. 552., in which these principles are expressed in Court, to induce the Judges to condemn the dissolute Cinesias: τοῦτον δὲ τὸν ὑπὸ πλείστων γινωσκόμενον οἱ θεοὶ οὕτως διέθεσαν, ὥστε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ βούλεσθαι ζῆν μᾶλλον ἢ τεθνάναι, παράδειγμα τοῖς ἄλλοις, ἵν’ἴδωσιν ὅτι τοῖς ἄλλοις ὑβριστικῶς πρὸς τὰ θεῖα διακειμένοις, οὐκ εἰς τοὺς παῖδας ἀποτίθενται τὰς τιμωρίας, ἀλλ’αὐτοὺς κακῶς ἀπολύουσι, μείζους καὶ χαλεπωτέρας, καὶ τὰς νόσους, ἢ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις, προσβάλλοντες· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἀποθανεῖν ἢ καμεῖν νομίμως κοινὸν ἅπασιν ὑμῖν ἐστίν· τὸ δ’οὕτως ἔχοντα τοσοῦτον χρόνον διατελεῖν, καὶ καθ’ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκοντα μὴ δύνασθαι τελευτῆσαι τὸν βίον, τούτοις μόνοις, προσήκει τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἅπερ οὗτος, ἐξημαρτηκόσιν. (But this man, who is known to most of you, the gods have brought to such a pass that his enemies may well wish him to live rather than die, to be an example to other men, showing them that where men’s conduct is too violently overbearing towards the gods, these do not inflict punishments on their children, but pay them out in person with misfortunes, bringing down on them calamities and diseases greater and more severe than fall to the lot of others. For death and sickness are admittedly common to all of you; but to continue so long in such a condition, and dying every day, yet not be able to have done with his life, this is the fate only of men who have committed such evil deeds as he has). Again, the Taxili, an Indian people, regarded any bodily sickness as disgraceful, and on its appearance gave themselves to the fire; αἴσχιστον δ’αὐτοῖς νομίζεσθαι νόσον σωματικήν· τὸν δ’ὑπονοήσαντα καθ’ αὑτοῦ τοῦτο ἐξάγειν ἑαυτὸν διὰ πυρὸς νήσαντα πυράν, (But they hold a bodily disease to be most disgraceful; and the man who has formed a suspicion of the existence of such in himself, goes through the fire, after making a funeral pyre) saysStrabo, Geograph. bk. XV. p. 716. 65. We should compare with this the suicide of Festus spoken of above and of the “Municeps”Plinytells of.276Aretaeus, De caus. et sign. chron. morb. (On the Causes and Symptoms of Chronic Diseases), bk. II. ch. 5., says indeed explicitly of gonorrhœa: ἀνώλεθρον μὲν ἡ γονόῤῥοια,ἀτερπὲς δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς μέσφι ἀκοῆς, (Gonorrhœa is not indeed a dangerous complaint, but it is one that is hateful and abominable of repute).277Martial, bk. VI. Epigr. 31.,Uxorem, Charideme, tuam scis ipse sinisqueA medico futui. Vis sine febre mori!(Your wife, Charidemus, you knowto be entered by the doctorof your own knowledge, and suffer it. You are fain to die without a fever!) Similar instances occurred equally in the time of Hippocrates, as we gather from the oath, in which stands the clause: εἰς οἰκίας δὲ ὁκόσας ἂν ἐσίω, ἐσελεύσομαι ἐπ’ὠφελείῃ καμνόντων, ἐκτὸς ἐὼν πάσης ἀδικίης ἑκουσίης καὶ φθορίης τῆς τε ἄλλης, καὶἀφροδισίων ἔργων, ἐπί τε γυναικείων σωμάτων καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐλευθέρων τε καὶ δούλων. (Also into whatsoever houses I enter, I will go in there for the succour of sick persons, devoid of all voluntary offence and all evil-doing, and above all of all amorous practices, whether on the persons of women or free men or slaves). At the same time we learn from this document, that even then paederastia was wide-spread enough already, and that physicians were actually not ashamed to abuse their patients in this, as in other vicious ways! Undoubtedly it is from no other reason that the Turk at this very moment will rather expire than allow a clyster to be administered to him.278Martial, bk. II. Epigr. 40.,Omnes Tongilium medici iussere lavari,O stulti! febrem creditis esse? gula est.(All the doctors ordered Tongilius to bathe; fools! think you it is a fever? it is gluttony that is the matter). Comp. bk. XI. Epigr. 87.279Galen, Method. medendi, bk. VIII. ch. 6., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 580., σχεδὸν εἴρηταί μοι πάντα περὶ τῶν ἐφημέρων πυρετῶν· οἱ γὰρ ἐπὶ βουβῶσι πυρέξαντες οὐδὲ πυνθάνονται τῶν ἰατρῶν ὅ τι χρὴ ποιεῖν· ἀλλὰ τοῦθ’ἕλκους ἐφ’ᾧπερ ἂν ὁ βουβὼν αὐτοῖς εἴη γεγεννημένος, αὐτοῦ τε τοῦ βουβῶνος προνοησάμενοι, λούονται κατὰ τὴν παρακμὴν τοῦ γενομένου κ. τ. λ. (for translation see text above). TheDiatritonmentioned in the next sentence was the fast till the third day, which was generally prescribed byThessalusand themethodicschool. For this reason it was called διάτριτον θεσσαλείον (Thessalus’diatriton), and the physicians who held to it διατριτάριοι ἰατροὶ (doctors of thediatriton), as we gather from the subsequent statement ofGalen. Of the ephemera in case of buboesGalenalso speaks, ad Glauconem meth. med. bk. I. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. XI. p. 6., καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ βουβῶσι δὲ πυρετοὶ τούτου τοῦ γένους εἰσὶ, πλὴν εἰ μὴ χωρὶς ἕλκους φανεροῦ γένοιντο, (Moreover the fevers that follow on buboes are of this kind, the exception being if they have not been without open ulceration).Celsusmoreover, De re med. bk. VI. ch. 18., says à propos of diseases of the genitals, that he means to undertake their description, quia in vulgus eorum curatio praecipue cognoscenda est, quae invitissimus quisque alteri ostendit, (because a general acquaintance is particularly desirable with the means of curing such complaints as every man is most reluctant to make known to another).280Galen, Meth. med., bk. XIII. ch. 5. p. 881., οὕτως οὖν καὶ δι’ἕλκος ἐν δακτύλῳ γινόμενον ἤτοι ποδὸς ἢ χειρὸς οἱ κατὰ τὸν βουβῶνα καὶ τὴν μασχάλην ἀδένες ἐξαίρονταί τε καὶ φλεγμαίνουσι, τοῦ καταῤῥέοντος ἐπ’ ἄκρον τὸν κῶλον αἵματος ἀπολαβόντες πρῶτοι· καὶ κατὰ τράχηλον δὲ καὶ παρ’ ὦτα πολλάκις ἐξῄρθησαν ἀδένες, ἑλκῶν γενομένων ἤτοι κατὰ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἢ τὸν τράχηλον ἤ τι τῶν πλησίων μορίων· ὀνομάζουσι δὲ τοὺς οὕτως ἐξαρθέντας ἀδένας βουβῶνας. (Thus then in consequence of an ulcer that has formed in a finger or toe the glands of the groin and the arm-pit become swollen and inflamed, having been the first to receive back the blood that flows down to the extremity of the limb. Moreover on the neck and about the ears glands are frequently swollen, when ulcers have been set up in the head or neck or any of the neighbouring parts. And glands swollen up in this way are known as buboes).281Hippocratic Oath, inHippocrates, Vol. I. p. 2., ἃ δ’ἂν ἐν θεραπείῃ ἢ ἴδω ἢ ἀκούσω, ἢ καὶ ἄνευ θεραπείης, κατὰ βίον ἀνθρώπων, ἃ μὴ χρή ποτε ἐκκαλέεσθαι ἔξω, σιγήσομαι, ἄῤῥητα ἡγεύμενος εἶναι τὰ τοιαῦτα. (and whatsoever I may see or hear in my practice, or even apart from practice, connected with men’s life, what ought not in any case to be revealed, this I will say nought of, holding such secrets inviolable).282Hippocrates, De locis in homine, edit. Kühn Vol. II. p. 139.283Galen, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 238.284Oppenheim, loco citato p. 123. The Eastern Christian woman in question actually assured Niebuhr herself that she would never agree to the knife being applied to her husband’s genitals, and yet in this case it was merely a question of dividing an over shortfrenulum.Michaelis, “Mosaisches Recht”, (Mosaic Law), Vol. IV. p. 3.285Examples of such are at any rate plentiful inMartial, e.g. bk. XI. Epigr. 75.,Curandum penem commisit Bacchara GraecusRivali medico: Bacchara Gallus erit.(Bacchara entrusted the cure of his member to a rival doctor: Bacchara was a Greek, he will now be a Gaul,—“Gallus”, castrated Priest of Cybelé).bk. II. Epigr. 46.,Quae tibi non stabat, praecisa est mentula, Glypte.Demens, cum ferro quid tibi? Gallus eras.(Your member, Glyptus, that you could never get to stand erect, has been cut. Fool,—why! what had you to do with the knife? You were a “Gallus” already).bk. III. Epigr. 81.,Abscissa est quare Samia tibi mentula testa,Si tibi tam gratus, Baetice, cunnus erat?(Why has your member been cut with a Samian potsherd, if the female organ, Baeticus, was so dear to you)?286Scribonius Largus, De compos. medicam. edit. Bernhold, Strasburg 1786., p. 2., writes in his Introduction to the Callistus: Siquidem verum est, antiquos herbis ac radicibus eorum corporis vitia curasse: quia etiam tunc genus mortaliuminter initia non facile se ferro committebat. Quod etiam nunc plerique faciunt, ne dicam omnes; et, nisi magna compulsi necessitate speque ipsius salutis, non patiunter sibi fieri, quae sane vix sunt toleranda. (If in fact it is true that the Ancients cured the diseases of their bodies by means of herbs and roots: for even then the race of mortalsat the beginning did not readily entrust its cure to the knife. And this is what even now the most part do; and, unless constrained by a sore need and by the hope of actual recovery, do not suffer operations to be performed on them, which in very deed are hardly to be endured).287Galen, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 233.288Hippocrates, Coact. praenot., edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 343., τὰ ἑρπηστικὰ ὑπεράνω βουβῶνος πρὸς κενεῶνα καὶ ἥβην γινόμενα, σημαίνει κοιλίην πονηρευομένην. (Spreading eruptions that appear above the groin towards the flank and pubes point to an evil condition of stomach).289Galen, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 3., edit. Kühn Vol. X. pp. 243 sqq.290HenceHensleris quite right in saying as he does (History of Venereal Disease Vol. I. p. 298.): “It is extraordinary that a precision should have been demanded on the part of the Ancients, which they could not possibly possess, such indeed as cannot be expected in any disease during its childhood. As to requiring them to have announced the cause of the evil with certainty and clearness, this is always only the result of time and reiterated experience.”291Galen, De locis affect. bk. VI. ch. 5., edit. Kühn Vol. VIII. p. 422., φαινομένου δὲ σαφῶς, ἰσχυροτάτην ἔχειν τὴν δύναμιν ἐνίας τῶν οὐσιῶν, ὑπόλοιπον ἂν εἴη ζητεῖν, εἰ διαφθορά τις ἐν τοῖς ζώοις δύναται γενέσθαι τηλικαύτη τὸ μέγεθος, ὡς ἰῷ θηρίου παραπλησίαν ἔχειν ποιότητά τε καὶ δύναμιν. (But it being plainly evident that there are some creatures that have the power developed in the highest degree, it would be superfluous to enquire whether there can exist in animals a destructive force so great in amount as to possess a quality and power similar to poison in snakes). In fact he answers this question in the affirmative so far as regards semen and menstrual blood, appealing to the poisonous quality of the spittle of dogs in rabies.292Heyne, De febribus epidemicis Romae falso in pestium censum relatis Progr., (On certain Epidemic Fevers at Rome incorrectly referred to the Category of Plagues,—a Graduation Exercise), Göttingen 1782., p. 4. (Works vol. III.), Hoc enim erat illud, quod antiquitatem omnino ab subtiliore naturae adeoque et morborum cognitione revocavit et retraxit, quod ea, quae ad interiorem eius notitiam spectabant, inprimisque quae ab solenni rerum cursu recedebant, ad religiones metumque deorum referebantur. (For indeed this was the cause which withdrew and kept back Antiquity generally from a more precise acquaintance with nature and so with diseases, viz. that everything which regarded the more intimate knowledge of it, and above all everything that was somewhat out of the common course of things, became a matter of religious scruples and superstition). Comp.C. F. H. Marx, Origines Contagii, (Original Causes of Contagion) Carlrühe and Baden 1824.293As a rule they ascribed the origin of the contagion to σῆψις (putrefaction), and from their point of view septic, or putrefactive, diseases were pretty much the same as infectious (Galen, De febr. diff. I. 4.). Hence it would seem probable the ἕλκεα σηπεδόνα (putrefying ulcers) were at any rate partly looked at in the same light,—a circumstance of the highest importance as bearing on ulcers of the genitals, as in that case these latter are manifestly represented as being infectious. It is to be hoped that experts will give their decision as to this. At any rate as early asGalen’stime (De locis effect. bk. VI. ch. 5., edit. Kühn Vol. VIII. p. 422.) the action of contagion was regarded as analogous to that of the electric ray-fish (νάρκη θαλάττιος) and the magnet, and the conclusion was drawn: ταῦτά τε οὖν ἱκανὰ τεκμήρια τοῦ σμικρὰν οὐσίαν ἀλλοιώσεις μεγίστας ἐργάζεσθαι μόνῳ τῷ ψαῦσαι. (these then are sufficient evidences of the fact that a small creature may produce very great variations by contact alone).294These were treated by the female physicians (αἱ ἰατρίναι),Galen, De loc. effect. VI. 5., Vol. VIII. p. 414. and the midwives, who had to examine the female genitals in cases of disease affecting them, and report the results to the Physicians. Σκέψασθαι κέλευσον τὴν μαῖαν ἁψαμένην τοῦ τῆς μήτρας αὐχένος, (bid the midwife examine by touch the neck of the womb),Galensays, loco citato p. 433.295Galen, De morborum causis, ch. 9., edit. Kühn Vol. VII. p. 39.296Galen, Methodus medendi bk. II. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 84.297Hensler, History of Venereal Disease Vol. I. p. 191. He says explicitly: “However I do not propose to follow up to its original cause the history either of gonorrhœa, valuable as the results might be, nor that of any other complaint liable to occur. It is sufficient for my purpose to elucidate my Authorities for Venereal disease at its first appearance from the circumstances of their epoch, though no doubt incidentally the eye must sometimes take a wider sweep and look further and higher.”298Galen, De loc. affect, bk. VI. 6. (VIII. p. 439.), τὸ δὲ τῆς γονοῤῥοίας ὄνομα προφανῶς ἐστι σύνθετον ἐκ τῆς γονῆς καὶ τοῦ ῥεῖν· ὀνομάζεται γὰρ τὸ σπέρμα καὶ γονός. (Now the name of gonorrhœa is evidently compounded from the words γονὴ and ῥεῖν. For the semen (σπέρμα) is also known as γονός.)299Galen, loco cit. p. 441., γονόῤῥοια μὲν οὖν τῶν σπερματικῶν ὀργάνων ἐστὶ πάθος, οὐ τῶν αἰδοίων, οἷς ὁδῷ χρῆται πρὸς ἔκρουν ἡ γονή· (Gonorrhœa accordingly is an affection of the seminal organs, not of the privates, which the seed merely uses as its passage for excretion).—De usu partium bk. XIV. ch. 10. (IV. p. 188.), κατὰ δὲ τὰς γονοῤῥοίας αὐτῶν μόνων ἐστὶ τὸ πάθημα τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων. (But in gonorrhœas the affection is one solely of the seminal vessels).300Galen, De symptom. caus. bk. II. ch. 2. (VII. p. 150.), ὥσπέρ γε καὶ τῆς γονοῤῥοίας ἡ ἑτέρα διαφορά· εἰ μὲν γὰρ μετὰ ἐντάσεως τοῦ αἰδοίου γένοιτο, οἷον σπασμός ἐστιν, εἰ δὲ χωρὶς ταύτης, ἀῤῥωστία τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως. (As is the case too with the second variety of gonorrhœa. For if it be combined with tension of the private, it is a sort of spasm, but if without this, a weakness of retentive force).—Bk. III. ch. 11. (p. 267.), καὶ μὴν καὶ αἱ γονόῤῥοιαι, χωρὶς μὲν τοῦ συνεντείνεσθαι τὸ αἰδοῖον, ἀρρωστία τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως τῆς ἐν τοῖς σπερματικοῖς ἀγγείοις· ἐντεινομένου δέ πως, οἷον σπασμῷ τινι παραπλήσιον πασχόντων ἐπιτελοῦνται. (Moreover also gonorrhœas, if not combined with a state of tension of the private, are from a weakness of retentive power in the seminal vessels; but if there is any tension, they are marked by a sort of spasm resembling that of spasmodic patients).301Galen, De tumoribus praeternat., ch. 14. (VII. p. 728.), καθάπερ καὶ τὰς κατὰ φύσιν ἐντάσεις τῶν αἰδοίων μὴ καθισταμένας τινὲς ὀνομάζουσι σατυριασμὸν, τινὲς δὲ πριαπισμόν. (Precisely as tensions of the privates not originating in a natural way are called by some Satyriasis, by others Priapism). The latter, as we gather fromGalen, Method. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 968.), by the younger physicians.302Galen, De usu partium bk. XIV. ch. 10. (IV. p. 187.), πηλίκην γὰρ ἔχει δύναμιν εἰς τὴν τῶν περιεχομένων ἔκκρισιν ὁ οἷον σπασμὸς τῶν μορίων τοῖς ἀφροδισίοις ἑπόμενος, ἔνεστί σοι μαθεῖν ἔκ τε τῶν ἐπιληψίων τῶν μεγάλων κἀκ τοῦ παθήματος, ὃ δὴ καλεῖται γονόῤῥοια· κατὰ μὲν γὰρ τὰς ἰσχυρὰς ἐπιληψίας, ὅτι τὸ πᾶν σῶμα σπᾶται σφοδρῶς, καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τὰ γεννητικὰ μόρια, διὰ τοῦτο ἐκκρίνεται τὸ σπέρμα· κατὰ δὲ τὰς γονοῤῥοίας αὐτῶν μόνων ἐστὶ τὸ πάθημα τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων· ὁποίαν οὖν τάσιν ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις νοσήμασι πάσχει, τοιαύτην ἴσχοντα ταῖς συνουσίαις ἐκκρίνει τὸ σπέρμα. (for how great a force in the way of stimulating the secretion of the surrounding glands is exerted by the species of spasm of the parts that follows on amatory action, you may learn from the seizures in the more serious forms of epilepsy, as also from the affection which is known as gonorrhœa. For in violent epileptic seizures, because the whole body is strongly convulsed, and with it the procreative parts, for this reason the semen is secreted; whereas in gonorrhœas the affection is one solely of the actual seminal vessels. Accordingly whatever tension these parts undergo in the diseases mentioned is the same in degree as they experience on secreting semen in acts of sexual intercourse). Comp. Note 2.303Galen, Method. medendi bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 967.), αὐτίκα γέ τοι πάθος ἐστὶ τὸ καλούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν νεωτέρων πριαπισμὸς, ἐπειδὴ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἀκουσίως ἐξαίρεται, τῶν οὕτω διακειμένων· ὃ θεασάμενός τις τῶν ἐν τοῖσδε τοῖς ὑπομνήμασι προγεγυμνασμένων ἑτοίμως γνωριεῖ τοῦ τῶν ἐμφυσημάτων ὑπάρχον γένους· (The immediate complaint is what is called by the younger school Priapism, when the private part is erected involuntarily in patients so afflicted; and if any of my readers who have been prepared beforehand in the present memoranda see this, he will readily recognize the phænomenon to belong to the class of the emphysemata, or inflations). De sympt. caus. bk. III. ch. 11. (VII. p. 266).304Galen, De causis morb. ch. 6. (VII. p. 22.), καὶ ὡς ἐνίοτε μὲν εἰλικρινὴς ἐπιῤῥεῖ τούτων ἕκαστος τῶν χυμῶν, ἐνίοτε δ’ἀλλήλοις ἐπιμίγνυνται· καὶ ὡς αἱ τῶν οἰδούντων—μορίων διαθέσεις ἐντεῦθεν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ποικίλλονται ... καὶ σατυριάσεις ἐκ τούτου τοῦ γένους εἰσὶ. (And so sometimes each of these humours is secreted pure, while at other times they are mixed one with the other; and so from this circumstance the conditions of the parts suffering swelling vary in the highest degree.... Now cases of satyriasis are of this kind). Comp. Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7.305Paulus Aegineta, bk. III. ch. 56., ἡ σατυρίασις ἐστὶ παλμὸς τοῦ αἰδοίου φλεγμονώδει τινι διαθέσει τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων ἑπόμενος μετ’ἐντάσεως· καὶ εἰ μὴ παύσαιτο ὁ παλμός, κατασκήπτειν εἴωθεν εἰς πάρεσιν τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων ἢ σπασμόν, καὶ ἀπόλλυντας ὀξέως οἱ σπασθέντες· τελευτῶντες δὲ φυσῶνται γαστέρα καὶ ὑδροῦσι ψυχρόν. (Satyriasis is palpitation of the private part following on an inflammatory condition of the spermatic vessels and accompanied with tension. If the palpitation do not cease, it commonly passes into paresis of the spermatic vessels or spasm, and patients attacked by the spasm quickly succumb; and in their last moments they have the abdomen distended and suffer from cold sweats.)306Actuarius, Method. med. bk. I ch. 22., Priapismus vero est permanens constansque colis extensio.—Corripit hic affectus cum calidus crassusque spiritus in colem decumbit, qui ubi non facile egredi permittitur, penem vi extendit. Hi exiguum vel nihil seminis eiaculantur, sentiunt tamen quod spiritus una excludatur et levari quidem aegri ita quadamtenus videntur: verum denuo eodem malo corripiuntur, donec intensionis causa fuerit sublata. Coles resolvitur, aut quod nervi illius aliqua intemperie debilitentur aut quod spiritus confluens deficiat vel meatus eius obstruantur dissecenturve. (Now priapism is a permanent and chronic state of erection of the member.—This complaint attacks a patient, when a hot and heavy spirit descends into the member, which not being suffered to readily escape, violently erects the penis. Such patients ejaculate little or no semen, yet feel that the spirit is voided along with it, and so far as thereisany emission, appear to be relieved thereby; but they are again attacked afresh by the same evil, until the cause of the tension has been removed. Then the member is relaxed, either because its muscles are weakened by some morbid condition, or because the spirit converging to it fails or its passages are blocked and become dried up).307Aretaeus, Morb. chron. sympt. bk. II. ch. 5., ἀπὸ σατυριήσεως ἐς γονοῤῥοίης ἀπόσκηψιν ἡ κατάστασις. (The established tendency after satyriasis is towards a determination of gonorrhœa).Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. ch. 18., Omnibus tamen in ultimo conductio nervorum fit, quam Graeci spasmon vocaverunt et voluntarius seminis iactus. (Yet in all cases eventually a certain action of the muscles takes place, which the Greeks call spasm, and a voluntary ejaculation of semen).308Galen, Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 970.), γίνεται δὲ οὐ πολλοῖς μὲν τὸ πάθος τοῦτο, νεανίαις γε μὲν μᾶλλον ἢ κατ’ἄλλην ἡλικίαν· (Now this complaint does not attack many, and young men are more liable than any other age).Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. ch. 18., Sed antecedentes ipsius passionis causae sunt epota medicamina—ἐντατικὰ—, item immodicus atque intemporalis usus veneris. Est autem communis passio viris atque feminis, quae solet accidere aetatibus mediis atque iuventuti. (But the antecedent causes of the actual complaint are the taking of drugs, viz. aphrodisiacs, as also immoderate and unseasonable indulgence in love. And the complaint is common both to men and women, and regularly attacks persons in middle life as well as the young).309Galen, Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. pp. 969 sqq.). Comp. De Composit. medicam. secund. locos, bk. IX. ch. 9. (XIII. p. 318.).Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. 18., Chron. morb. bk. II. 1. V. 9.Actuarius, Method. med. I. 15.Nonnus, Epitom. ch. 194.Priscian, bk. II. ch. 11.310Caelius Aurelianbk. III. ch. 18., Prohibentes etiam hominum ingressum et magis iuvenum feminarum atque puerorum. Pulchritudo enim ingredientium admonitione quadam provocat aegrotantes; quippe cum etiam sani saepe talibus usi statim in veneream veniant voluptatem, provocati partium effecta tentigine. (Forbidding the entrance even of men, much more that of youths, women and boys. For the beauty of those entering excites the patients by calling up remembered images; for even healthy subjects frequently enjoying such sights straightway fall in lustful love, incited by a certain tension of the parts being produced). He also recommended shaving the hair of the pubis.311Galen, De loc affect. VI. 6. (VIII. p. 439.), ἡ μὲν οὖν γονόῤῥοια σπέρματος ἀπόκρισίς ἐστιν ἀκούσιος, ἔξεστι δὲ καὶ ἀπροαίρετον ὀνομάζειν, ὥσπερ καὶ σαφέστερον, ἀπόκρισιν σπέρματος συνεχῶς γιγνομένην, χωρὶς τῆς κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἐνστάσεως ... ὥσπερ δὲ καὶ τ’ἄλλα πάντα τὰ ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν ἐκκενούμενα κατὰ διττὸν τρόπον τοῦτο πάσχει, ποτὲ μὲν ἐκ τῶν περιεχόντων αὐτὰ σωμάτων ἐκκρινόμενα, ποτὲ δὲ αὐτομάτως ἐκρέοντα δι’ ἀῤῥωστίαν τῶν αὐτῶν σωμάτων οὐ κατεχόμενα, οὕτως καὶ τὸ σπέρμα· (Now gonorrhœa is an involuntary discharge of semen, or we may call it unintentional, if we prefer, as being a clearer term, the discharge of semen taking place continuously, without erection in the member.... And just as other parts of our body when evacuated, suffer this in one of two ways, sometimes being discharged by the bodies that surround them, at others flowing out automatically, as failing to be retained through some weakness in the bodies themselves, so is it also with the semen).—Paulus Aegineta, bk. III. ch. 55., ἡ γονόῤῥοια σπέρματος ἐστὶν ἀκούσιος ἀπόκρισις σανεχῶς γινομένη χωρὶς τῆς κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἐνστάσεως, διὰ τὴν τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως ἀσθένειαν γινομένη. (Gonorrhœa is an involuntary discharge of seed going on persistently without erection in the member, being due to feebleness of the retentive power).Nonnus, Epitome ch. 193., says the same.312Galen, loco citato p. 441., ὥσπερ γε καὶ τὴν τῆς γονοῤῥοίας, ἀνάλογον οὔρων ἐκκρίσεσιν ἀκουσίοις, ὅταν ἡ κατέχουσα δύναμις αὐτὴ παραλυθεῖσα τύχῃ. (Similarly too the discharge of gonorrhœa, analogous to the involuntary discharges of urine, whenever the retentive power itself has come to be paralysed).Actuarius, Method. med. bk. I. ch. 22., Causa autem eius est, seminalium vasorum fluxus facilitas, aut impotentia aut quod ob enatam intemperiem semen continere nequeant, aut quodhumorquispiammordaxibi abundans stimulet. (Now the cause of it is the facility of flow from the seminal vessels, either from impotence or because they are unable to retain the semen in consequence of a morbid condition that has arisen, or else because someacridhumour is there in over-abundance, stimulating the flow).313Galen, De sanitate tuenda Bk. VI. ch. 14. (VI. p. 443.), Μοχθηροτάτη δὲ σώματός ἐστι καὶ ἡ τοίαδε· σπέρμα πολὺ καὶ δερμὸν ἔνιοι γεννῶσιν, ἐπείγει γὰρ αὐτοὺς εἰς ἀπόκρισιν, οὗ μετὰ τὴν ἔκκρισιν ἔκλυτοί τε γίγνονται τῷ στόματι τῆς κοιλίας, ... ἀσθενεῖς γίγνονται, καὶ ξηροὶ καὶ λεπτοὶ, καὶ ὠχροὶ, καὶ κοιλοφθαλμιῶντες οἱ οὕτω διακείμενοι· εἰ δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ταῦτα πάσχειν ἐπὶ ταῖς συνουσίαις ἀπέχοιντο μίξεως ἀφροδισίων δύσφοροι μὲν τὴν κεφαλὴν, δύσφοροι δὲ καὶ τῷ στομάχῳ, καὶ ἀσώδεις· οὐδὲν δὲ μέγα διὰ τῆς ἐγκρατείας ὠφελοῦνται· συμβαίνει γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐξονειρώττουσι παραπλησίας γίνεσθαι βλάβας, ἃς ἔπασχον ἐπὶ ταῖς συνουσίαις·ὡς δέ τις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἔφημοι, δακνώδους τε καὶ θερμοῦ πάνυ τοῦ σπέρματος αἰσθάνεσθαι κατὰ τὴν ἀπόκρισιν, οὐ μόνον ἑαυτὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας αἷς ἂν ὁμιλήσῃ· (However the most troublesome condition of body is the following: some patients produce copious and hot semen, and this provokes them to ejaculation, then after its ejaculation, they grow relaxed at the neck of the belly, ... and become weak, and dried up, and thin, and pale, and hollow-eyed,—the patients that find themselves so affected. And if after suffering in these ways, they then indulge in the intercourse of sexual love, they are afflicted in head and in stomach, and with nausea. Nor on the other hand do they get any great benefit from continence; for they come, by having pollutions in dreams, to undergo similar inconveniences to those they incurred in sexual intercourse. And as one of them said to me,he experienced a biting and exceedingly hot sensation from the semen in its ejaculation,—and not himself only, but also such women as he had intercourse with).314Aretaeus, De morbor. chronic. symptom. bk. II. ch. 5., Ἀνώλεθρον μὲν ἡ γονόῤῥοια,ἀτερπὲς δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς μέσφι ἀκοῆς· ἣν γὰρ ἀκρασίη καὶπάρεσιςτὰ ὑγρὰ ἴσχῃ καὶ γόνιμα μέρεα, ὅκως διὰ ψυχρῶν ῥέει ἡ θορὴ, οὐδὲ ἐπισχεῖν ἐστὶ αὐτὴν οὐδὲ ἐν ὕπνοισι· ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἤν τε εὕδῃ, ἤν τε ἐγρηγορέῃ, ἀνεπίσχετος ἡ φορὴ, ἀναίσθητος δὲ ἡ ῥοὴ τοῦ γόνου γίγνεται·νοσέουσι δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες τήνδε τὴν νοῦσον, ἀλλ’ἐπὶ κνησμοῖσι τῶν μορίων καὶ ἡδονῇ προχέεται τῇσι ἡ θορή· ἀτὰρ καὶ πρὸς ἄνδρας ὁμιλίῃ ἀναισχύντῳ· ἄνδρες δὲ οὐδ’ὅλως ὀδάξονται· τὸ δὲ ῥέον ὑγρὸν λεπτὸν, ψυχρὸν, ἄχρουν, ἄγονον· πῶς γὰρ ζωογόνον ἐκπέμψαι σπέρμα ψυχρὴ οὖσα ἡ φύσις· ἢν δὲ καὶ νέοι πάσχωσι, γηραλέους χρὴ γενέσθαι πάντας τὴν ἕξιν, νωθώδεας, ἐκλύτους, ἀψύχους, ὀκνέοντας, κωφούς, ἀσθενέας, ῥικνούς, ἀπρήκτους, ἐπώχρους, λευκοὺς, γυναικώδεας, ἀποσίτους, ψυχροὺς, μελέων βάρεα, καὶ νάρκας σκελέων, ἀκρατέας, καὶ ἐς πάντα παρέτους· ἥδε ἡ νοῦσος ὁδὸς ἐς παράλυσιν πολλοῖσι γίγνεται· πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν τῶν νεύρων ἥδε ἡ δύναμις πάθοι τῆς ἐς ζωῆς γένεσιν φύσιος ἀπεψυγμένης. (Gonorrhœa is not indeed a dangerous thing, but itisa disagreeable one, and one that isin the highest degree unseemly in repute. For if incontinence andparesisattack the soft procreative parts, the semen flows all the same even though the organs are cold, nor is it possible to stop it even in sleep; for whether a man sleep, or wake, the running is continual, and the flow of the seed goes on unconsciously.And women also are subject to this complaint; but in their case the discharge of the semen is accompanied with itchings and with pleasurable feeling, as well as with shameless intercourse with men, whereas men are not in any way excited. And the moisture that is discharged is thin, cold, colourless, unfruitful; for how should its nature, that is cold, send forth fertile semen? And if young men suffer from it, they are bound to grow old in constitution and condition, sluggish, relaxed, lifeless, hesitating, dull of hearing, weak, shrunken, ineffectual, pallid, white, womanish, without appetite, chilly, heavy of limb, and stiff of leg and palsied in every part. This complaint is the avenue to paralysis for many; for how should this power of the nerves not suffer when the natural parts pertaining to the generation of life are chilled).315CelsusDe re med. bk. IV. ch. 21., Est etiam circa naturalia vitium, nimia profusio seminis, quod sine venere, sine nocturnis imaginibus sic fertur, ut interposito spatio, tabe hominem consumat. (There is another complaint connected with the private parts, viz. excessive discharge of semen, which apart altogether from love, and apart from nocturnal pollutions in dreams, is so persistent that, given a sufficient interval of time, it destroys a man by wasting).316Alexander of Tralles, bk. IV. ch. 9., δέονται γὰρ οὗτοι τῶν ἐπικιρνώντων καὶ ἐμψυχόντων πάνυ καὶ λουτρῶν εὐκράτων· ὥστε παχυνθεῖσαν ἠρέμα τὴν γονὴν καὶ εὔκρατον γενομένην, μηκέτι φέρεσθαι. (For these patients require compound and very cooling drugs, and lukewarm baths; so that the seed growing quietly thicker and well-conditioned, may no longer flow away).317Galen, Definit. medic. n. 288. (XIX. p. 426.), Γονόῤῥοιά ἐστιν ἀπόκρισις ἐπιφέρουσα σπέρματος νόσημα μετὰ τοῦ τήκεσθαι τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἀχρούστερον ἀποτελεῖσθαι· γίνεται δὲ ἀτονησάντων τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων, ὥστε τρόπον τινὰ παρειμένων αὐτῶν μὴ κρατεῖσθαι τὸ σπέρμα. (Gonorrhœa is a discharge producing a diseased state of semen accompanied by wasting of the body and an unhealthy-looking complexion; and it arises through the semen vessels having become atonic, so that, these being in a way paralysed, the semen is not retained).

274In any case it is an error to suppose that by this it is implied that the maidens and young men were absolutely naked. They were merely μονόπεπλοι (single-frocked), clothed in a single short frock, slit up at the hips, for which reason they were also known by the name φαινομηρίδες (showing the thighs) (Pollux, Onomastic. VII. 55.), a costume which was pretty much the general Doric one; thusMoerissays δωριάζειν τὸ παραγυμνοῦσθαί τινα μέρη, (to follow Dorian fashions, to expose certain parts). Comp.Meursius, Laconic. bk. I. end.K. O. Müller, The Dorians, IInd. Part pp. 263, 265.Josephus, De special. legg., Works, Vol. II. p. 328. The meaning of γυμνὸς is nothing more than “lightly clad”, in mere underclothing, without outer cloak. SoEubulus, (Athenaeus bk. XIII. p. 568.) says, speaking of the brothel-girls, γυμνάς—ἐν λεπτονήτοις ὑμέσιν ἑστωτας (standing “naked”—in light-spun garments).Aelian, Var. hist. XIII. 37., ἐν χιτωνίσκῳ γυμνὸς, (“naked” in a tunic). Similarlynudus(naked) in Latin, asCuper(Observat. bk. I. ch. 7.) long ago pointed out, often has no other meaning, but merely stands fortunicatus(clad in the tunic), in tunic only, without cloak or toga. We see this very clearly inPetronius, Satir. 55., Aequum est induere nuptam ventum textilem,—Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea. (’Tis right a bride should put on woven wind,—that she should stand openly for sale, “naked” in a linen cloud!) In precisely the same way the Jews use their word עָרֹם (arôm), Isaiah Ch. XX. 2., Job Ch. XXIV. 7. 10. I Samuel ch. XIX. 24., and the Arabs مسلوخ (mesluch).

275Plato, Republic, bk. II. p. 405. The Speech ofLysiasὙπὲρ Φανίου contains a passage, preserved for us byAthenaeus, bk. XII. p. 552., in which these principles are expressed in Court, to induce the Judges to condemn the dissolute Cinesias: τοῦτον δὲ τὸν ὑπὸ πλείστων γινωσκόμενον οἱ θεοὶ οὕτως διέθεσαν, ὥστε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ βούλεσθαι ζῆν μᾶλλον ἢ τεθνάναι, παράδειγμα τοῖς ἄλλοις, ἵν’ἴδωσιν ὅτι τοῖς ἄλλοις ὑβριστικῶς πρὸς τὰ θεῖα διακειμένοις, οὐκ εἰς τοὺς παῖδας ἀποτίθενται τὰς τιμωρίας, ἀλλ’αὐτοὺς κακῶς ἀπολύουσι, μείζους καὶ χαλεπωτέρας, καὶ τὰς νόσους, ἢ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις, προσβάλλοντες· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἀποθανεῖν ἢ καμεῖν νομίμως κοινὸν ἅπασιν ὑμῖν ἐστίν· τὸ δ’οὕτως ἔχοντα τοσοῦτον χρόνον διατελεῖν, καὶ καθ’ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκοντα μὴ δύνασθαι τελευτῆσαι τὸν βίον, τούτοις μόνοις, προσήκει τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἅπερ οὗτος, ἐξημαρτηκόσιν. (But this man, who is known to most of you, the gods have brought to such a pass that his enemies may well wish him to live rather than die, to be an example to other men, showing them that where men’s conduct is too violently overbearing towards the gods, these do not inflict punishments on their children, but pay them out in person with misfortunes, bringing down on them calamities and diseases greater and more severe than fall to the lot of others. For death and sickness are admittedly common to all of you; but to continue so long in such a condition, and dying every day, yet not be able to have done with his life, this is the fate only of men who have committed such evil deeds as he has). Again, the Taxili, an Indian people, regarded any bodily sickness as disgraceful, and on its appearance gave themselves to the fire; αἴσχιστον δ’αὐτοῖς νομίζεσθαι νόσον σωματικήν· τὸν δ’ὑπονοήσαντα καθ’ αὑτοῦ τοῦτο ἐξάγειν ἑαυτὸν διὰ πυρὸς νήσαντα πυράν, (But they hold a bodily disease to be most disgraceful; and the man who has formed a suspicion of the existence of such in himself, goes through the fire, after making a funeral pyre) saysStrabo, Geograph. bk. XV. p. 716. 65. We should compare with this the suicide of Festus spoken of above and of the “Municeps”Plinytells of.

276Aretaeus, De caus. et sign. chron. morb. (On the Causes and Symptoms of Chronic Diseases), bk. II. ch. 5., says indeed explicitly of gonorrhœa: ἀνώλεθρον μὲν ἡ γονόῤῥοια,ἀτερπὲς δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς μέσφι ἀκοῆς, (Gonorrhœa is not indeed a dangerous complaint, but it is one that is hateful and abominable of repute).

277Martial, bk. VI. Epigr. 31.,Uxorem, Charideme, tuam scis ipse sinisqueA medico futui. Vis sine febre mori!(Your wife, Charidemus, you knowto be entered by the doctorof your own knowledge, and suffer it. You are fain to die without a fever!) Similar instances occurred equally in the time of Hippocrates, as we gather from the oath, in which stands the clause: εἰς οἰκίας δὲ ὁκόσας ἂν ἐσίω, ἐσελεύσομαι ἐπ’ὠφελείῃ καμνόντων, ἐκτὸς ἐὼν πάσης ἀδικίης ἑκουσίης καὶ φθορίης τῆς τε ἄλλης, καὶἀφροδισίων ἔργων, ἐπί τε γυναικείων σωμάτων καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐλευθέρων τε καὶ δούλων. (Also into whatsoever houses I enter, I will go in there for the succour of sick persons, devoid of all voluntary offence and all evil-doing, and above all of all amorous practices, whether on the persons of women or free men or slaves). At the same time we learn from this document, that even then paederastia was wide-spread enough already, and that physicians were actually not ashamed to abuse their patients in this, as in other vicious ways! Undoubtedly it is from no other reason that the Turk at this very moment will rather expire than allow a clyster to be administered to him.

277Martial, bk. VI. Epigr. 31.,

Uxorem, Charideme, tuam scis ipse sinisqueA medico futui. Vis sine febre mori!

Uxorem, Charideme, tuam scis ipse sinisque

A medico futui. Vis sine febre mori!

(Your wife, Charidemus, you knowto be entered by the doctorof your own knowledge, and suffer it. You are fain to die without a fever!) Similar instances occurred equally in the time of Hippocrates, as we gather from the oath, in which stands the clause: εἰς οἰκίας δὲ ὁκόσας ἂν ἐσίω, ἐσελεύσομαι ἐπ’ὠφελείῃ καμνόντων, ἐκτὸς ἐὼν πάσης ἀδικίης ἑκουσίης καὶ φθορίης τῆς τε ἄλλης, καὶἀφροδισίων ἔργων, ἐπί τε γυναικείων σωμάτων καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐλευθέρων τε καὶ δούλων. (Also into whatsoever houses I enter, I will go in there for the succour of sick persons, devoid of all voluntary offence and all evil-doing, and above all of all amorous practices, whether on the persons of women or free men or slaves). At the same time we learn from this document, that even then paederastia was wide-spread enough already, and that physicians were actually not ashamed to abuse their patients in this, as in other vicious ways! Undoubtedly it is from no other reason that the Turk at this very moment will rather expire than allow a clyster to be administered to him.

278Martial, bk. II. Epigr. 40.,Omnes Tongilium medici iussere lavari,O stulti! febrem creditis esse? gula est.(All the doctors ordered Tongilius to bathe; fools! think you it is a fever? it is gluttony that is the matter). Comp. bk. XI. Epigr. 87.

278Martial, bk. II. Epigr. 40.,

Omnes Tongilium medici iussere lavari,O stulti! febrem creditis esse? gula est.

Omnes Tongilium medici iussere lavari,

O stulti! febrem creditis esse? gula est.

(All the doctors ordered Tongilius to bathe; fools! think you it is a fever? it is gluttony that is the matter). Comp. bk. XI. Epigr. 87.

279Galen, Method. medendi, bk. VIII. ch. 6., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 580., σχεδὸν εἴρηταί μοι πάντα περὶ τῶν ἐφημέρων πυρετῶν· οἱ γὰρ ἐπὶ βουβῶσι πυρέξαντες οὐδὲ πυνθάνονται τῶν ἰατρῶν ὅ τι χρὴ ποιεῖν· ἀλλὰ τοῦθ’ἕλκους ἐφ’ᾧπερ ἂν ὁ βουβὼν αὐτοῖς εἴη γεγεννημένος, αὐτοῦ τε τοῦ βουβῶνος προνοησάμενοι, λούονται κατὰ τὴν παρακμὴν τοῦ γενομένου κ. τ. λ. (for translation see text above). TheDiatritonmentioned in the next sentence was the fast till the third day, which was generally prescribed byThessalusand themethodicschool. For this reason it was called διάτριτον θεσσαλείον (Thessalus’diatriton), and the physicians who held to it διατριτάριοι ἰατροὶ (doctors of thediatriton), as we gather from the subsequent statement ofGalen. Of the ephemera in case of buboesGalenalso speaks, ad Glauconem meth. med. bk. I. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. XI. p. 6., καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ βουβῶσι δὲ πυρετοὶ τούτου τοῦ γένους εἰσὶ, πλὴν εἰ μὴ χωρὶς ἕλκους φανεροῦ γένοιντο, (Moreover the fevers that follow on buboes are of this kind, the exception being if they have not been without open ulceration).Celsusmoreover, De re med. bk. VI. ch. 18., says à propos of diseases of the genitals, that he means to undertake their description, quia in vulgus eorum curatio praecipue cognoscenda est, quae invitissimus quisque alteri ostendit, (because a general acquaintance is particularly desirable with the means of curing such complaints as every man is most reluctant to make known to another).

280Galen, Meth. med., bk. XIII. ch. 5. p. 881., οὕτως οὖν καὶ δι’ἕλκος ἐν δακτύλῳ γινόμενον ἤτοι ποδὸς ἢ χειρὸς οἱ κατὰ τὸν βουβῶνα καὶ τὴν μασχάλην ἀδένες ἐξαίρονταί τε καὶ φλεγμαίνουσι, τοῦ καταῤῥέοντος ἐπ’ ἄκρον τὸν κῶλον αἵματος ἀπολαβόντες πρῶτοι· καὶ κατὰ τράχηλον δὲ καὶ παρ’ ὦτα πολλάκις ἐξῄρθησαν ἀδένες, ἑλκῶν γενομένων ἤτοι κατὰ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἢ τὸν τράχηλον ἤ τι τῶν πλησίων μορίων· ὀνομάζουσι δὲ τοὺς οὕτως ἐξαρθέντας ἀδένας βουβῶνας. (Thus then in consequence of an ulcer that has formed in a finger or toe the glands of the groin and the arm-pit become swollen and inflamed, having been the first to receive back the blood that flows down to the extremity of the limb. Moreover on the neck and about the ears glands are frequently swollen, when ulcers have been set up in the head or neck or any of the neighbouring parts. And glands swollen up in this way are known as buboes).

281Hippocratic Oath, inHippocrates, Vol. I. p. 2., ἃ δ’ἂν ἐν θεραπείῃ ἢ ἴδω ἢ ἀκούσω, ἢ καὶ ἄνευ θεραπείης, κατὰ βίον ἀνθρώπων, ἃ μὴ χρή ποτε ἐκκαλέεσθαι ἔξω, σιγήσομαι, ἄῤῥητα ἡγεύμενος εἶναι τὰ τοιαῦτα. (and whatsoever I may see or hear in my practice, or even apart from practice, connected with men’s life, what ought not in any case to be revealed, this I will say nought of, holding such secrets inviolable).

282Hippocrates, De locis in homine, edit. Kühn Vol. II. p. 139.

283Galen, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 238.

284Oppenheim, loco citato p. 123. The Eastern Christian woman in question actually assured Niebuhr herself that she would never agree to the knife being applied to her husband’s genitals, and yet in this case it was merely a question of dividing an over shortfrenulum.Michaelis, “Mosaisches Recht”, (Mosaic Law), Vol. IV. p. 3.

285Examples of such are at any rate plentiful inMartial, e.g. bk. XI. Epigr. 75.,Curandum penem commisit Bacchara GraecusRivali medico: Bacchara Gallus erit.(Bacchara entrusted the cure of his member to a rival doctor: Bacchara was a Greek, he will now be a Gaul,—“Gallus”, castrated Priest of Cybelé).bk. II. Epigr. 46.,Quae tibi non stabat, praecisa est mentula, Glypte.Demens, cum ferro quid tibi? Gallus eras.(Your member, Glyptus, that you could never get to stand erect, has been cut. Fool,—why! what had you to do with the knife? You were a “Gallus” already).bk. III. Epigr. 81.,Abscissa est quare Samia tibi mentula testa,Si tibi tam gratus, Baetice, cunnus erat?(Why has your member been cut with a Samian potsherd, if the female organ, Baeticus, was so dear to you)?

285Examples of such are at any rate plentiful inMartial, e.g. bk. XI. Epigr. 75.,

Curandum penem commisit Bacchara GraecusRivali medico: Bacchara Gallus erit.

Curandum penem commisit Bacchara Graecus

Rivali medico: Bacchara Gallus erit.

(Bacchara entrusted the cure of his member to a rival doctor: Bacchara was a Greek, he will now be a Gaul,—“Gallus”, castrated Priest of Cybelé).

bk. II. Epigr. 46.,

Quae tibi non stabat, praecisa est mentula, Glypte.Demens, cum ferro quid tibi? Gallus eras.

Quae tibi non stabat, praecisa est mentula, Glypte.

Demens, cum ferro quid tibi? Gallus eras.

(Your member, Glyptus, that you could never get to stand erect, has been cut. Fool,—why! what had you to do with the knife? You were a “Gallus” already).

bk. III. Epigr. 81.,

Abscissa est quare Samia tibi mentula testa,Si tibi tam gratus, Baetice, cunnus erat?

Abscissa est quare Samia tibi mentula testa,

Si tibi tam gratus, Baetice, cunnus erat?

(Why has your member been cut with a Samian potsherd, if the female organ, Baeticus, was so dear to you)?

286Scribonius Largus, De compos. medicam. edit. Bernhold, Strasburg 1786., p. 2., writes in his Introduction to the Callistus: Siquidem verum est, antiquos herbis ac radicibus eorum corporis vitia curasse: quia etiam tunc genus mortaliuminter initia non facile se ferro committebat. Quod etiam nunc plerique faciunt, ne dicam omnes; et, nisi magna compulsi necessitate speque ipsius salutis, non patiunter sibi fieri, quae sane vix sunt toleranda. (If in fact it is true that the Ancients cured the diseases of their bodies by means of herbs and roots: for even then the race of mortalsat the beginning did not readily entrust its cure to the knife. And this is what even now the most part do; and, unless constrained by a sore need and by the hope of actual recovery, do not suffer operations to be performed on them, which in very deed are hardly to be endured).

287Galen, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 233.

288Hippocrates, Coact. praenot., edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 343., τὰ ἑρπηστικὰ ὑπεράνω βουβῶνος πρὸς κενεῶνα καὶ ἥβην γινόμενα, σημαίνει κοιλίην πονηρευομένην. (Spreading eruptions that appear above the groin towards the flank and pubes point to an evil condition of stomach).

289Galen, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 3., edit. Kühn Vol. X. pp. 243 sqq.

290HenceHensleris quite right in saying as he does (History of Venereal Disease Vol. I. p. 298.): “It is extraordinary that a precision should have been demanded on the part of the Ancients, which they could not possibly possess, such indeed as cannot be expected in any disease during its childhood. As to requiring them to have announced the cause of the evil with certainty and clearness, this is always only the result of time and reiterated experience.”

291Galen, De locis affect. bk. VI. ch. 5., edit. Kühn Vol. VIII. p. 422., φαινομένου δὲ σαφῶς, ἰσχυροτάτην ἔχειν τὴν δύναμιν ἐνίας τῶν οὐσιῶν, ὑπόλοιπον ἂν εἴη ζητεῖν, εἰ διαφθορά τις ἐν τοῖς ζώοις δύναται γενέσθαι τηλικαύτη τὸ μέγεθος, ὡς ἰῷ θηρίου παραπλησίαν ἔχειν ποιότητά τε καὶ δύναμιν. (But it being plainly evident that there are some creatures that have the power developed in the highest degree, it would be superfluous to enquire whether there can exist in animals a destructive force so great in amount as to possess a quality and power similar to poison in snakes). In fact he answers this question in the affirmative so far as regards semen and menstrual blood, appealing to the poisonous quality of the spittle of dogs in rabies.

292Heyne, De febribus epidemicis Romae falso in pestium censum relatis Progr., (On certain Epidemic Fevers at Rome incorrectly referred to the Category of Plagues,—a Graduation Exercise), Göttingen 1782., p. 4. (Works vol. III.), Hoc enim erat illud, quod antiquitatem omnino ab subtiliore naturae adeoque et morborum cognitione revocavit et retraxit, quod ea, quae ad interiorem eius notitiam spectabant, inprimisque quae ab solenni rerum cursu recedebant, ad religiones metumque deorum referebantur. (For indeed this was the cause which withdrew and kept back Antiquity generally from a more precise acquaintance with nature and so with diseases, viz. that everything which regarded the more intimate knowledge of it, and above all everything that was somewhat out of the common course of things, became a matter of religious scruples and superstition). Comp.C. F. H. Marx, Origines Contagii, (Original Causes of Contagion) Carlrühe and Baden 1824.

293As a rule they ascribed the origin of the contagion to σῆψις (putrefaction), and from their point of view septic, or putrefactive, diseases were pretty much the same as infectious (Galen, De febr. diff. I. 4.). Hence it would seem probable the ἕλκεα σηπεδόνα (putrefying ulcers) were at any rate partly looked at in the same light,—a circumstance of the highest importance as bearing on ulcers of the genitals, as in that case these latter are manifestly represented as being infectious. It is to be hoped that experts will give their decision as to this. At any rate as early asGalen’stime (De locis effect. bk. VI. ch. 5., edit. Kühn Vol. VIII. p. 422.) the action of contagion was regarded as analogous to that of the electric ray-fish (νάρκη θαλάττιος) and the magnet, and the conclusion was drawn: ταῦτά τε οὖν ἱκανὰ τεκμήρια τοῦ σμικρὰν οὐσίαν ἀλλοιώσεις μεγίστας ἐργάζεσθαι μόνῳ τῷ ψαῦσαι. (these then are sufficient evidences of the fact that a small creature may produce very great variations by contact alone).

294These were treated by the female physicians (αἱ ἰατρίναι),Galen, De loc. effect. VI. 5., Vol. VIII. p. 414. and the midwives, who had to examine the female genitals in cases of disease affecting them, and report the results to the Physicians. Σκέψασθαι κέλευσον τὴν μαῖαν ἁψαμένην τοῦ τῆς μήτρας αὐχένος, (bid the midwife examine by touch the neck of the womb),Galensays, loco citato p. 433.

295Galen, De morborum causis, ch. 9., edit. Kühn Vol. VII. p. 39.

296Galen, Methodus medendi bk. II. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 84.

297Hensler, History of Venereal Disease Vol. I. p. 191. He says explicitly: “However I do not propose to follow up to its original cause the history either of gonorrhœa, valuable as the results might be, nor that of any other complaint liable to occur. It is sufficient for my purpose to elucidate my Authorities for Venereal disease at its first appearance from the circumstances of their epoch, though no doubt incidentally the eye must sometimes take a wider sweep and look further and higher.”

298Galen, De loc. affect, bk. VI. 6. (VIII. p. 439.), τὸ δὲ τῆς γονοῤῥοίας ὄνομα προφανῶς ἐστι σύνθετον ἐκ τῆς γονῆς καὶ τοῦ ῥεῖν· ὀνομάζεται γὰρ τὸ σπέρμα καὶ γονός. (Now the name of gonorrhœa is evidently compounded from the words γονὴ and ῥεῖν. For the semen (σπέρμα) is also known as γονός.)

299Galen, loco cit. p. 441., γονόῤῥοια μὲν οὖν τῶν σπερματικῶν ὀργάνων ἐστὶ πάθος, οὐ τῶν αἰδοίων, οἷς ὁδῷ χρῆται πρὸς ἔκρουν ἡ γονή· (Gonorrhœa accordingly is an affection of the seminal organs, not of the privates, which the seed merely uses as its passage for excretion).—De usu partium bk. XIV. ch. 10. (IV. p. 188.), κατὰ δὲ τὰς γονοῤῥοίας αὐτῶν μόνων ἐστὶ τὸ πάθημα τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων. (But in gonorrhœas the affection is one solely of the seminal vessels).

300Galen, De symptom. caus. bk. II. ch. 2. (VII. p. 150.), ὥσπέρ γε καὶ τῆς γονοῤῥοίας ἡ ἑτέρα διαφορά· εἰ μὲν γὰρ μετὰ ἐντάσεως τοῦ αἰδοίου γένοιτο, οἷον σπασμός ἐστιν, εἰ δὲ χωρὶς ταύτης, ἀῤῥωστία τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως. (As is the case too with the second variety of gonorrhœa. For if it be combined with tension of the private, it is a sort of spasm, but if without this, a weakness of retentive force).—Bk. III. ch. 11. (p. 267.), καὶ μὴν καὶ αἱ γονόῤῥοιαι, χωρὶς μὲν τοῦ συνεντείνεσθαι τὸ αἰδοῖον, ἀρρωστία τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως τῆς ἐν τοῖς σπερματικοῖς ἀγγείοις· ἐντεινομένου δέ πως, οἷον σπασμῷ τινι παραπλήσιον πασχόντων ἐπιτελοῦνται. (Moreover also gonorrhœas, if not combined with a state of tension of the private, are from a weakness of retentive power in the seminal vessels; but if there is any tension, they are marked by a sort of spasm resembling that of spasmodic patients).

301Galen, De tumoribus praeternat., ch. 14. (VII. p. 728.), καθάπερ καὶ τὰς κατὰ φύσιν ἐντάσεις τῶν αἰδοίων μὴ καθισταμένας τινὲς ὀνομάζουσι σατυριασμὸν, τινὲς δὲ πριαπισμόν. (Precisely as tensions of the privates not originating in a natural way are called by some Satyriasis, by others Priapism). The latter, as we gather fromGalen, Method. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 968.), by the younger physicians.

302Galen, De usu partium bk. XIV. ch. 10. (IV. p. 187.), πηλίκην γὰρ ἔχει δύναμιν εἰς τὴν τῶν περιεχομένων ἔκκρισιν ὁ οἷον σπασμὸς τῶν μορίων τοῖς ἀφροδισίοις ἑπόμενος, ἔνεστί σοι μαθεῖν ἔκ τε τῶν ἐπιληψίων τῶν μεγάλων κἀκ τοῦ παθήματος, ὃ δὴ καλεῖται γονόῤῥοια· κατὰ μὲν γὰρ τὰς ἰσχυρὰς ἐπιληψίας, ὅτι τὸ πᾶν σῶμα σπᾶται σφοδρῶς, καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τὰ γεννητικὰ μόρια, διὰ τοῦτο ἐκκρίνεται τὸ σπέρμα· κατὰ δὲ τὰς γονοῤῥοίας αὐτῶν μόνων ἐστὶ τὸ πάθημα τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων· ὁποίαν οὖν τάσιν ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις νοσήμασι πάσχει, τοιαύτην ἴσχοντα ταῖς συνουσίαις ἐκκρίνει τὸ σπέρμα. (for how great a force in the way of stimulating the secretion of the surrounding glands is exerted by the species of spasm of the parts that follows on amatory action, you may learn from the seizures in the more serious forms of epilepsy, as also from the affection which is known as gonorrhœa. For in violent epileptic seizures, because the whole body is strongly convulsed, and with it the procreative parts, for this reason the semen is secreted; whereas in gonorrhœas the affection is one solely of the actual seminal vessels. Accordingly whatever tension these parts undergo in the diseases mentioned is the same in degree as they experience on secreting semen in acts of sexual intercourse). Comp. Note 2.

303Galen, Method. medendi bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 967.), αὐτίκα γέ τοι πάθος ἐστὶ τὸ καλούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν νεωτέρων πριαπισμὸς, ἐπειδὴ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἀκουσίως ἐξαίρεται, τῶν οὕτω διακειμένων· ὃ θεασάμενός τις τῶν ἐν τοῖσδε τοῖς ὑπομνήμασι προγεγυμνασμένων ἑτοίμως γνωριεῖ τοῦ τῶν ἐμφυσημάτων ὑπάρχον γένους· (The immediate complaint is what is called by the younger school Priapism, when the private part is erected involuntarily in patients so afflicted; and if any of my readers who have been prepared beforehand in the present memoranda see this, he will readily recognize the phænomenon to belong to the class of the emphysemata, or inflations). De sympt. caus. bk. III. ch. 11. (VII. p. 266).

304Galen, De causis morb. ch. 6. (VII. p. 22.), καὶ ὡς ἐνίοτε μὲν εἰλικρινὴς ἐπιῤῥεῖ τούτων ἕκαστος τῶν χυμῶν, ἐνίοτε δ’ἀλλήλοις ἐπιμίγνυνται· καὶ ὡς αἱ τῶν οἰδούντων—μορίων διαθέσεις ἐντεῦθεν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ποικίλλονται ... καὶ σατυριάσεις ἐκ τούτου τοῦ γένους εἰσὶ. (And so sometimes each of these humours is secreted pure, while at other times they are mixed one with the other; and so from this circumstance the conditions of the parts suffering swelling vary in the highest degree.... Now cases of satyriasis are of this kind). Comp. Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7.

305Paulus Aegineta, bk. III. ch. 56., ἡ σατυρίασις ἐστὶ παλμὸς τοῦ αἰδοίου φλεγμονώδει τινι διαθέσει τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων ἑπόμενος μετ’ἐντάσεως· καὶ εἰ μὴ παύσαιτο ὁ παλμός, κατασκήπτειν εἴωθεν εἰς πάρεσιν τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων ἢ σπασμόν, καὶ ἀπόλλυντας ὀξέως οἱ σπασθέντες· τελευτῶντες δὲ φυσῶνται γαστέρα καὶ ὑδροῦσι ψυχρόν. (Satyriasis is palpitation of the private part following on an inflammatory condition of the spermatic vessels and accompanied with tension. If the palpitation do not cease, it commonly passes into paresis of the spermatic vessels or spasm, and patients attacked by the spasm quickly succumb; and in their last moments they have the abdomen distended and suffer from cold sweats.)

306Actuarius, Method. med. bk. I ch. 22., Priapismus vero est permanens constansque colis extensio.—Corripit hic affectus cum calidus crassusque spiritus in colem decumbit, qui ubi non facile egredi permittitur, penem vi extendit. Hi exiguum vel nihil seminis eiaculantur, sentiunt tamen quod spiritus una excludatur et levari quidem aegri ita quadamtenus videntur: verum denuo eodem malo corripiuntur, donec intensionis causa fuerit sublata. Coles resolvitur, aut quod nervi illius aliqua intemperie debilitentur aut quod spiritus confluens deficiat vel meatus eius obstruantur dissecenturve. (Now priapism is a permanent and chronic state of erection of the member.—This complaint attacks a patient, when a hot and heavy spirit descends into the member, which not being suffered to readily escape, violently erects the penis. Such patients ejaculate little or no semen, yet feel that the spirit is voided along with it, and so far as thereisany emission, appear to be relieved thereby; but they are again attacked afresh by the same evil, until the cause of the tension has been removed. Then the member is relaxed, either because its muscles are weakened by some morbid condition, or because the spirit converging to it fails or its passages are blocked and become dried up).

307Aretaeus, Morb. chron. sympt. bk. II. ch. 5., ἀπὸ σατυριήσεως ἐς γονοῤῥοίης ἀπόσκηψιν ἡ κατάστασις. (The established tendency after satyriasis is towards a determination of gonorrhœa).Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. ch. 18., Omnibus tamen in ultimo conductio nervorum fit, quam Graeci spasmon vocaverunt et voluntarius seminis iactus. (Yet in all cases eventually a certain action of the muscles takes place, which the Greeks call spasm, and a voluntary ejaculation of semen).

308Galen, Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 970.), γίνεται δὲ οὐ πολλοῖς μὲν τὸ πάθος τοῦτο, νεανίαις γε μὲν μᾶλλον ἢ κατ’ἄλλην ἡλικίαν· (Now this complaint does not attack many, and young men are more liable than any other age).Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. ch. 18., Sed antecedentes ipsius passionis causae sunt epota medicamina—ἐντατικὰ—, item immodicus atque intemporalis usus veneris. Est autem communis passio viris atque feminis, quae solet accidere aetatibus mediis atque iuventuti. (But the antecedent causes of the actual complaint are the taking of drugs, viz. aphrodisiacs, as also immoderate and unseasonable indulgence in love. And the complaint is common both to men and women, and regularly attacks persons in middle life as well as the young).

309Galen, Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. pp. 969 sqq.). Comp. De Composit. medicam. secund. locos, bk. IX. ch. 9. (XIII. p. 318.).Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. 18., Chron. morb. bk. II. 1. V. 9.Actuarius, Method. med. I. 15.Nonnus, Epitom. ch. 194.Priscian, bk. II. ch. 11.

310Caelius Aurelianbk. III. ch. 18., Prohibentes etiam hominum ingressum et magis iuvenum feminarum atque puerorum. Pulchritudo enim ingredientium admonitione quadam provocat aegrotantes; quippe cum etiam sani saepe talibus usi statim in veneream veniant voluptatem, provocati partium effecta tentigine. (Forbidding the entrance even of men, much more that of youths, women and boys. For the beauty of those entering excites the patients by calling up remembered images; for even healthy subjects frequently enjoying such sights straightway fall in lustful love, incited by a certain tension of the parts being produced). He also recommended shaving the hair of the pubis.

311Galen, De loc affect. VI. 6. (VIII. p. 439.), ἡ μὲν οὖν γονόῤῥοια σπέρματος ἀπόκρισίς ἐστιν ἀκούσιος, ἔξεστι δὲ καὶ ἀπροαίρετον ὀνομάζειν, ὥσπερ καὶ σαφέστερον, ἀπόκρισιν σπέρματος συνεχῶς γιγνομένην, χωρὶς τῆς κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἐνστάσεως ... ὥσπερ δὲ καὶ τ’ἄλλα πάντα τὰ ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν ἐκκενούμενα κατὰ διττὸν τρόπον τοῦτο πάσχει, ποτὲ μὲν ἐκ τῶν περιεχόντων αὐτὰ σωμάτων ἐκκρινόμενα, ποτὲ δὲ αὐτομάτως ἐκρέοντα δι’ ἀῤῥωστίαν τῶν αὐτῶν σωμάτων οὐ κατεχόμενα, οὕτως καὶ τὸ σπέρμα· (Now gonorrhœa is an involuntary discharge of semen, or we may call it unintentional, if we prefer, as being a clearer term, the discharge of semen taking place continuously, without erection in the member.... And just as other parts of our body when evacuated, suffer this in one of two ways, sometimes being discharged by the bodies that surround them, at others flowing out automatically, as failing to be retained through some weakness in the bodies themselves, so is it also with the semen).—Paulus Aegineta, bk. III. ch. 55., ἡ γονόῤῥοια σπέρματος ἐστὶν ἀκούσιος ἀπόκρισις σανεχῶς γινομένη χωρὶς τῆς κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἐνστάσεως, διὰ τὴν τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως ἀσθένειαν γινομένη. (Gonorrhœa is an involuntary discharge of seed going on persistently without erection in the member, being due to feebleness of the retentive power).Nonnus, Epitome ch. 193., says the same.

312Galen, loco citato p. 441., ὥσπερ γε καὶ τὴν τῆς γονοῤῥοίας, ἀνάλογον οὔρων ἐκκρίσεσιν ἀκουσίοις, ὅταν ἡ κατέχουσα δύναμις αὐτὴ παραλυθεῖσα τύχῃ. (Similarly too the discharge of gonorrhœa, analogous to the involuntary discharges of urine, whenever the retentive power itself has come to be paralysed).Actuarius, Method. med. bk. I. ch. 22., Causa autem eius est, seminalium vasorum fluxus facilitas, aut impotentia aut quod ob enatam intemperiem semen continere nequeant, aut quodhumorquispiammordaxibi abundans stimulet. (Now the cause of it is the facility of flow from the seminal vessels, either from impotence or because they are unable to retain the semen in consequence of a morbid condition that has arisen, or else because someacridhumour is there in over-abundance, stimulating the flow).

313Galen, De sanitate tuenda Bk. VI. ch. 14. (VI. p. 443.), Μοχθηροτάτη δὲ σώματός ἐστι καὶ ἡ τοίαδε· σπέρμα πολὺ καὶ δερμὸν ἔνιοι γεννῶσιν, ἐπείγει γὰρ αὐτοὺς εἰς ἀπόκρισιν, οὗ μετὰ τὴν ἔκκρισιν ἔκλυτοί τε γίγνονται τῷ στόματι τῆς κοιλίας, ... ἀσθενεῖς γίγνονται, καὶ ξηροὶ καὶ λεπτοὶ, καὶ ὠχροὶ, καὶ κοιλοφθαλμιῶντες οἱ οὕτω διακείμενοι· εἰ δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ταῦτα πάσχειν ἐπὶ ταῖς συνουσίαις ἀπέχοιντο μίξεως ἀφροδισίων δύσφοροι μὲν τὴν κεφαλὴν, δύσφοροι δὲ καὶ τῷ στομάχῳ, καὶ ἀσώδεις· οὐδὲν δὲ μέγα διὰ τῆς ἐγκρατείας ὠφελοῦνται· συμβαίνει γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐξονειρώττουσι παραπλησίας γίνεσθαι βλάβας, ἃς ἔπασχον ἐπὶ ταῖς συνουσίαις·ὡς δέ τις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἔφημοι, δακνώδους τε καὶ θερμοῦ πάνυ τοῦ σπέρματος αἰσθάνεσθαι κατὰ τὴν ἀπόκρισιν, οὐ μόνον ἑαυτὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας αἷς ἂν ὁμιλήσῃ· (However the most troublesome condition of body is the following: some patients produce copious and hot semen, and this provokes them to ejaculation, then after its ejaculation, they grow relaxed at the neck of the belly, ... and become weak, and dried up, and thin, and pale, and hollow-eyed,—the patients that find themselves so affected. And if after suffering in these ways, they then indulge in the intercourse of sexual love, they are afflicted in head and in stomach, and with nausea. Nor on the other hand do they get any great benefit from continence; for they come, by having pollutions in dreams, to undergo similar inconveniences to those they incurred in sexual intercourse. And as one of them said to me,he experienced a biting and exceedingly hot sensation from the semen in its ejaculation,—and not himself only, but also such women as he had intercourse with).

314Aretaeus, De morbor. chronic. symptom. bk. II. ch. 5., Ἀνώλεθρον μὲν ἡ γονόῤῥοια,ἀτερπὲς δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς μέσφι ἀκοῆς· ἣν γὰρ ἀκρασίη καὶπάρεσιςτὰ ὑγρὰ ἴσχῃ καὶ γόνιμα μέρεα, ὅκως διὰ ψυχρῶν ῥέει ἡ θορὴ, οὐδὲ ἐπισχεῖν ἐστὶ αὐτὴν οὐδὲ ἐν ὕπνοισι· ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἤν τε εὕδῃ, ἤν τε ἐγρηγορέῃ, ἀνεπίσχετος ἡ φορὴ, ἀναίσθητος δὲ ἡ ῥοὴ τοῦ γόνου γίγνεται·νοσέουσι δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες τήνδε τὴν νοῦσον, ἀλλ’ἐπὶ κνησμοῖσι τῶν μορίων καὶ ἡδονῇ προχέεται τῇσι ἡ θορή· ἀτὰρ καὶ πρὸς ἄνδρας ὁμιλίῃ ἀναισχύντῳ· ἄνδρες δὲ οὐδ’ὅλως ὀδάξονται· τὸ δὲ ῥέον ὑγρὸν λεπτὸν, ψυχρὸν, ἄχρουν, ἄγονον· πῶς γὰρ ζωογόνον ἐκπέμψαι σπέρμα ψυχρὴ οὖσα ἡ φύσις· ἢν δὲ καὶ νέοι πάσχωσι, γηραλέους χρὴ γενέσθαι πάντας τὴν ἕξιν, νωθώδεας, ἐκλύτους, ἀψύχους, ὀκνέοντας, κωφούς, ἀσθενέας, ῥικνούς, ἀπρήκτους, ἐπώχρους, λευκοὺς, γυναικώδεας, ἀποσίτους, ψυχροὺς, μελέων βάρεα, καὶ νάρκας σκελέων, ἀκρατέας, καὶ ἐς πάντα παρέτους· ἥδε ἡ νοῦσος ὁδὸς ἐς παράλυσιν πολλοῖσι γίγνεται· πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν τῶν νεύρων ἥδε ἡ δύναμις πάθοι τῆς ἐς ζωῆς γένεσιν φύσιος ἀπεψυγμένης. (Gonorrhœa is not indeed a dangerous thing, but itisa disagreeable one, and one that isin the highest degree unseemly in repute. For if incontinence andparesisattack the soft procreative parts, the semen flows all the same even though the organs are cold, nor is it possible to stop it even in sleep; for whether a man sleep, or wake, the running is continual, and the flow of the seed goes on unconsciously.And women also are subject to this complaint; but in their case the discharge of the semen is accompanied with itchings and with pleasurable feeling, as well as with shameless intercourse with men, whereas men are not in any way excited. And the moisture that is discharged is thin, cold, colourless, unfruitful; for how should its nature, that is cold, send forth fertile semen? And if young men suffer from it, they are bound to grow old in constitution and condition, sluggish, relaxed, lifeless, hesitating, dull of hearing, weak, shrunken, ineffectual, pallid, white, womanish, without appetite, chilly, heavy of limb, and stiff of leg and palsied in every part. This complaint is the avenue to paralysis for many; for how should this power of the nerves not suffer when the natural parts pertaining to the generation of life are chilled).

315CelsusDe re med. bk. IV. ch. 21., Est etiam circa naturalia vitium, nimia profusio seminis, quod sine venere, sine nocturnis imaginibus sic fertur, ut interposito spatio, tabe hominem consumat. (There is another complaint connected with the private parts, viz. excessive discharge of semen, which apart altogether from love, and apart from nocturnal pollutions in dreams, is so persistent that, given a sufficient interval of time, it destroys a man by wasting).

316Alexander of Tralles, bk. IV. ch. 9., δέονται γὰρ οὗτοι τῶν ἐπικιρνώντων καὶ ἐμψυχόντων πάνυ καὶ λουτρῶν εὐκράτων· ὥστε παχυνθεῖσαν ἠρέμα τὴν γονὴν καὶ εὔκρατον γενομένην, μηκέτι φέρεσθαι. (For these patients require compound and very cooling drugs, and lukewarm baths; so that the seed growing quietly thicker and well-conditioned, may no longer flow away).

317Galen, Definit. medic. n. 288. (XIX. p. 426.), Γονόῤῥοιά ἐστιν ἀπόκρισις ἐπιφέρουσα σπέρματος νόσημα μετὰ τοῦ τήκεσθαι τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἀχρούστερον ἀποτελεῖσθαι· γίνεται δὲ ἀτονησάντων τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων, ὥστε τρόπον τινὰ παρειμένων αὐτῶν μὴ κρατεῖσθαι τὸ σπέρμα. (Gonorrhœa is a discharge producing a diseased state of semen accompanied by wasting of the body and an unhealthy-looking complexion; and it arises through the semen vessels having become atonic, so that, these being in a way paralysed, the semen is not retained).

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