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
[117] _Marcellus Empiricus_, De medicam. liber ch. 19.,
Adversum _Elephantiasin, quod malum plerumque a facie auspicatur,
primumque oritur quasi lenticulis variis et inaequalibus, cute alba,
alibi tenui, plerisque locis dura et quasi scabida et ad postremum sic
increscit ut ossibus, caro adstricta, tumescentibus primum digitis
atque articulis indurescat_. Hic morbus peculiariter Aegyptiorum
populis notus est nec solum in vulgus extremum, sed etiam reges ipsos
frequenter irrepsit, unde adversus hoc malum solia ipsis in balneo
repleta humano sanguine parabantur. Mustelae igitur exustae cinis
et eiusdem belluae, id est elephantis sanguis immixtus et inlitus,
huiusmodi corporibus medetur. (_Against _elephantiasis_, which malady
is generally seen in the face, beginning first with a sort of scales of
various shape and different size, the skin being white, in some parts
thick, in others thin, in most places hard and with a sort of scab over
it; eventually the malady increases to such a degree that the flesh is
as it were drawn tight over the bones, the fingers and joints swelling
first, and becomes indurated._ This disease was particularly familiar
among the peoples of Egypt, and not merely did it affect the lowest
vulgar, but even frequently crept in amongst kings themselves, whence
it came that, to combat the evil, baths filled with human blood were
prepared for them in the bath-house. The ashes therefore of a burned
weasel and the blood of the corresponding beast, that is to say the
elephant, were mixed together and used as an ointment in the remedial
treatment of bodies so afflicted).—_Actuarius_, Meth. med. bk. VI. ch.
6. On diseases of the _Face_, reads: Ad affectus eminentes, _facieique
pruritus ac principum elephantiae_, (For the principal affections,
_itchings of the face and the beginnings of elephantiasis_). Again
_Aretaeus_, De sign. chron. bk. II. ch. 13. edit. Kühn p. 179., says:
τὰ πολλὰ μὲν ὅκως καὶ _ἀπὸ σκοπιῆς τοῦ προσώπου ἀρχόμενον_ τηλεφανὲς
πῦρ κακόν, (Most oftentimes resembling a far-seen bale-fire _beginning
from the watchtower, as it were, of the face_).
[118] Commentar. in Horatium. Antwerp 1608. Vol. II. p. 469.
[119] _Zachar. Platner_, De Morbo Compano ad verba Horatii bk.
I. Sat. V. v. LXII. prolusio (Dissertation on the Companian Disease
as mentioned by Horace). Leipzig 1732. 4to., also reprinted in his
Opuscula, Leipzig 1794. 4to. Vol. II. pp. 21-28. The author holds the
disease to have been a sort of warts, having a resemblance with those
observed in Syphilitic patients.—_Nebel_, E. L. W., De morbis veterum
obscuris (On some Obscure Diseases of the Ancients), Sect. I., Giessen
1794. 8vo. pp. 18-25. The author believes the Morbus Campanus to have
been identical with Sycosis or θύμιον (large wart), but to have had no
connection with the _Lues Venerea_ (Venereal Contagion).
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