other Reasons, that they excelled most of their Cotemporaries in the Divine Art of Healing. Now altho’ those _Foreign-Authorities_, I before mentioned, might be looked upon as sufficient to convince any one, how our Ancestors blended these _two_ Diseases together; yet I shall prove from our own Writers, long before those, that altho’ the _Pox_ was not only among us, but in distant Nations, anciently confounded with the _Leprosy_; yet, so exact were our Writers in their Observations of the Infectious Nature of one Species of that Disease, and describing the Symptoms, as was sufficient to lead any Person to the distinguishing between them, so as to separate _one_ Disease from the _other_. I shall therefore _first_ enquire into the manner how the _Leprosy_ was sometimes said to be gotten in those early Times, and then examine the Symptoms of the Disease, that attacked the Patient. _John Gadisden_, a very learned and famous _English_ Physician, who flourished about 1340, in an excellent Work of his, he entitles _Rosa Anglica_, speaking _de Infectione ex Coitu Leprosi, vel Leprosæ_, says as follows, _Primo notandum quod ille qui timet de excoriatione & arsura Virgæ post coitum statim lavet Virgam cum aqua mixta aceto, vel cum urina propria, & nihil mali habebit_; and in another Place speaking _de Ulcere Virgæ_, he says, _Sed si quis vult membrum ab omni corruptione servare, cum a Muliere recedit, quam forte habet suspectam de immunditie, lavet illud cum aqua frigida mixta cum aceto, vel urina propria, intra vel extra preputium_. He likewise speaking still of the _Leprosy_, recommends a Decoction of Plantain and Roses in Wine, to be made use of by the Woman immediately after the _Venereal-Encounter_; upon which he tells us she will be secure. From hence it is evident some of their _Leprous Women_ (as they call’d them) were capable of communicating an infectious Malady to those that had carnal Conversation with them; which proves, the _Pudenda_ of the Women must be diseased, for as much as we are absolutely assured Infections of that Nature only happen when a sound Part comes to an immediate Contact with a diseased one; for the Symptoms always first display themselves in those Parts, thro’ which the Virulency is first conveyed. Now in a true _Leprosy_ we never meet with the mention of any Disorder in those Parts, which, if there be not, must absolutely secure the Person from having that Disease communicated to him by Coition with _Leprous-Women_; but it proves there was a Disease among them, which was not the _Leprosy_ altho’ it went by that Name; and that this could be no other than _Venereal_, because it was infectious; for there is no other Disease that is capable of being communicated this way but the _Venereal-Disease_, seeing the _Pudenda_ are only in that Distemper so diseased as to become capable of communicating their Contagion. I find the learned _Gilbertus Anglicus_, who flourished about 1360, reasoning