comprehended under the restraining Article. These Orders likewise prove the Disease was much more ancient than the Date above-mentioned; because they were only a Renewal of such as had been before established Time out of Mind. But to confirm this farther, I find that in the Custody of the Bp. of _Winchester_, whose Palace was situate on the _Bank-side_, near the _Stews_, was a Book written upon Vellum, the Title of which runs thus: _Here begynne the Ordinances, Rules, and Customs, as well for the Salvation of Mannes Life, as for to aschew many Mischiefs and Inconvenients that daily be lik there for to fall out, to be rightfully kept, and due Execution of them to be done unto any Person within the same._ One of the Articles begins thus: _De his qui custodiunt Mulieres habentes Nephandam infirmitatem._ It goes on, _Item, That no Stew-holder keep noo Woman wythin his House, that hath any Sickness of_ BRENNING, _but that she be put out upon the peyne of makeit a fine unto the Lord of a hundred Shillings_. This is taken from the Original Manuscript, which was preserv’d in the Bishop’s Court, suppos’d to be written about the Year 1430. From these Orders we may observe the Frequency of the Distemper at that Time; which, with other Inconveniences, was _dayly like there for to fall out_: and the Greatness of the Penalty, as the Value of Money then was, that is laid on it, proves it was no trifling or insignificant thing. But the bare Proof of there having been anciently such a Disease as was called the _Burning_, may be thought to be insufficient, unless we were perfectly assured what it was, and how it was in those Times described: I shall therefore do it from an unquestionable Authority, which is that of _John Arden_, Esq; who was one of the Surgeons to King _Richard_ II. and likewise to King _Henry_ IV. In a curious Manuscript of his upon Vellum, he defines it to be, a certain inward Heat and Excoriation of the _Urethra_; which Description gives us a perfect Idea of what we now call a _Clap_; for frequent Dissections of those who laboured under that Disease, have made it evident, that their _Urethra_ is excoriated by the Virulency of the Matter they receive from the infected Woman; and this Excoriation or Ulceration is not confined to the _Ostiola_ or Mouths of the _Glandulæ Muscosæ_ as has been lately thought, but may equally alike attack any Part of the _Urethra_ not beyond the reach of the impelled malignant Matter. The Heat before described, which these Persons are sensible of, as well now as formerly, is a Consequent of the excoriated _Urethra_; for the Salts contained in the Urine must necessarily prick and irritate the nervous _Fibrillæ_, and excite a Heat in those Parts of the _Urethra_ which are divested of its natural Membrane; which Heat will always be observed to be more or less, as the Salts are diluted with a greater or less Quantity of Urine; a thing I have often observed in Persons who have laboured under this Infirmity