The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical AntiquityRosenbaum, Julius
History
The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity
Rosenbaum, Julius
Sexually transmitted diseases -- History
If we now turn back again and make a brief survey of the various forms
of affections of the genitals described on preceding pages, comparing
them with those of the present day, such as we have opportunity to
observe in modern times, we think every unprejudiced reader will be
found ready to admit that they agree with these latter in _very
nearly every_ respect whatever, and that _every_ doubt would be
removed, if only the medical Writers had appended to the records
of their observations in each case the words, “got by infection in
coition.” But to what cause do we refer such cases as a matter of
fact, notwithstanding the denial on the part of the patient that he
has exposed himself to any infection? Do we not take it for granted as
a certainty that such infection did actually precede? Are we in the
habit of noting down in every instance in our day-book of cases the
antecedent act of coition that occasioned the chancre or what not; and
does this omission in any way imply that this did not first occur? To
our mind at any rate the fact suffices that non-professional observers
and even a professional one like Galen have supplied irrefutable
evidence that some of these affections were acquired by coition.
Amongst others, morbid outgrowths for example are manifestly shown
to have been so set up by the statement that they occurred on the
fundament of pathics; and it needs no great perspicacity to draw the
conclusion that if (unnatural) coition produced them in the pederast,
the same maladies occurring on the genital organs owed their origin to
the same cause.
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