A Collection of Chirurgical TractsBeckett, William
Science
A Collection of Chirurgical Tracts
Beckett, William
Surgery
’Tis true, the keeping of the _Publick Stews_ so very safe, will appear
a difficult Task, at first Sight; but not so if we consider the Case
a little nearer. This Disease is propagated reciprocally from the
Woman to the Man, and from the Man to the Woman; but the first is the
most common for several Reasons: We are not like Cocks or Town-Bulls,
who have a whole Seraglia of Females entirely and solely at their
Devotion; on the contrary, one industrious Pains-taking Woman, who lays
herself out that Way, is capable of satisfying several rampant Males;
insomuch, that a select Number of Women get a handsome Livelihood by
being able to oblige such a Number of Customers. Now, if but a few of
these Women are unsound, they can infect a great many Men; whereas
these Men have neither Power nor Inclination to infect the like Number
of Women. I say, Inclination; for a Woman, to raise Money for the
Surgeon’s Fee, may counterfeit Pleasure when she really receives Pain;
nay, she may even venture to complain of being hurt: for the Man will
attribute the Pain he gives her, either to her Chastity, or his own
Vigour; not dreaming, perhaps, that he has molested a _Shanker_. This
a Female may do, as being only passive in the Affair, but a Man must
have real Fancy and Inclination before he is qualify’d to enter upon
Action: And how far this Fancy to Woman may be cool’d by a stinging
_Gonorrhœa_, I leave the experienc’d Reader to judge; and whether a Man
won’t rather employ his Thoughts upon his _round Diet_, _i. e._ Pills,
how to digest 2 at Night, and 3 in the Morning; what Conveyance to find
out when poach’d Eggs grow nauseous, and how to preserve his Linnen
from being speckled; with a Thousand other Particulars that occur to a
Man in this Distress: but these are sufficient, with the Assistance of
a _Cordee_, to _bridle_ any moderate Passion. So that from the whole
we may safely draw this Conclusion; That since the Men are so seldom
guilty of transgressing in this Kind, the spreading of this Distemper
must be owing to the Neglect of Cure in the Women. Now the _Publick
Stews_ will be so regulated, that a Woman cannot possibly conceal
her Misfortune long; nay, it will be highly her Interest to make the
first Discovery; so that whatever Damage the _Society_ may sustain at
first, when Claps are most current, it will be soon repair’d, and this
Distemper, in Time, entirely rooted out. But of this enough.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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