[586] Perhaps this incantation was but a remnant of that ophite worship which appears to have in former times prevailed so generally throughout the world. On the ancient extent of serpent-worship in the old world, see Stukeley’s _Abury_, p. 32; Colonel Tod’s _History of Rajasthan_; the Rev. J. B. Deane’s learned Treatise on the Worship of the Serpent, and his observations on various ancient Dracontia, or ophite temples in England, France, etc., in the _Archæologia_, vol. xxv. p. 180, etc. Latterly, the observations of Mr. Squier would seem to show that the same type of worship was, in long past times, diffused as extensively over the new world. (See his late work, entitled _Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature in America_.) The supposed connection of the serpent and serpent-worship with the healing art has been handed down to us emblematically in the serpent symbol with which the caduceus of Æsculapius is always represented as surrounded. The Romans regarded the serpent as a symbol of health, and we find it figured as such on some of the coins of Augustus and Claudian. [587] _Aphrodisiacus, sive, Collectio Auctorum de Lue Venerea._ Venet. 1566-67; and Lugd. Batav. 1728. [588] _De Morbis Venereis._ Paris, 1740. [589] _Abhandlung über die Venerischen Krankheiten._ Göttingen, 1788. [590] See also a collection by Grüner of the opinions of many authors, who wrote in the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century, as to the disease being new and unknown,—in his _Morborum Antiquitates_, p. 69, _seq._ [591] _Aphrodisiacus, sive de Lue Venerea._ Jena, 1789. [592] _Vide_ Grüner’s _Aphrodisiacus_, p. 38. [593] _De Morbis Venereis_, 1740. [594] _Ueber die Venerischen Krankheiten_, 1788. [595] _The History, etc., of the Venereal Disease._ London, 1841. [596] _Sur l’Origine de la Maladie Venerienne._ Paris, 1752. [597] _Geschichte der Lustseuche._ Altona, 1783. [598] Grüner’s _Aphrodisiacus_, p. 115. [599] Grüner’s _Aphrodisiacus_, p. 86. [600] See _Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen_, edited by my friend Mr. John Stuart, and published by the Spalding Club. [601] By an evident clerical error this word is mis-spelled “vakis” in the copy of the edict contained in the Town-Council records. [602] _History of Scotland_, by John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, p. 76. [603] _The Chronicles of Scotland_, by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 249. [604] Two of these entries were published by Mr. Pitcairn, in the _Criminal Trials of Scotland_, vol. i. p. 117. My friend Mr. Joseph Robertson, Superintendent of Searches in the Literary and Antiquarian Department of the General Register House, most kindly collated for me the other entries, while looking over the Treasurer’s accounts for another purpose. [605] Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, vol. i. p. 110.