(In the first place my boy must be born on the banks of Nile: no other land can produce more finished wickedness). From all this, as well as from a comparison of the passage in Lucian, we believe we are amply justified in concluding that Aretaeus’ ulcers of the throat, these Αἰγύπτια καὶ Συριακὰ ἕλκεα (Egyptian and Syrian sores) were not unfrequently a consequence of _fellation_[45]. That this should be so is readily intelligible, when we consider the liability to corruption and the acrid quality of secretions from the _glans penis_ in hot countries. Again the βουβαστικὰ ἕλκεα (Bubastic sores), which _Salmasius_ cites from _Aëtius_[46] as being identical with the Egyptian and Syrian ulcers, find a satisfactory explanation on this hypothesis, for _Herodotus_[47] tells us in his time of the licentious worship of Bubastis, daughter of Isis, at Bubastos. In this expression (βουβαστικὰ ἕλκεα) the malady is named from one particular place, where it was probably specially prevalent, whereas in Aretaeus it is spoken of as general throughout the country. In this connection we must not pass over the fact that Casaubon commenting on the passage of Persius (V. 187.) to be quoted directly is inclined to regard the ἕλκεα Συριακὰ (Syrian sores) as a punishment of the Dea Syra (Syrian goddess). In this he relies on a passage of _Plutarch_[48] that runs to this effect: “But of the Syrian goddess the superstitious believe that, if a man eat a sprat or anchovy, the goddess consumes his shin-bones, fills his body full of sores, melts down his liver.” The legend must at any rate be of great antiquity, for we meet with it in _Menander_, in a fragment which _Porphyrius_[49] has preserved,—in which however swelling of the belly and the feet is in question. To this also would seem to refer what _Persius_ (loco citato) says: Hinc grandes Galli et cum sistro lusca sacerdos, Incussere _Deos inflantes corpora_, si non Praedictum ter mane caput gustaveris alli.