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
(So never yet has any man been able to tell precisely in what part of
the year he is).
[162] _Galen_, De symptomat. causis bk. III. ch. 11., edit. Kühn Vol.
VII. p. 267., καὶ μὴν αἰ γονόῤῥοιαι, χωρὶς μὲν τοῦ συντείνεσθαι τὸ
αἰδοῖον, ἀῤῥωσίᾳ τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως τῆς ἐν τοῖς σπερματικοῖς
ἀγγείοις· ἐντεινομένου δέ πως, οἷον σπασμᾷ τινι παραπλήσιον πασχόντων
ἐπιτελοῦνται. (Moreover gonorrhoeas, except in the case of the member
being in a state of tension, arise from weakness of the retentive
capacity in the spermatic vessels; but when there is tension of any
sort, they are subject to a kind of spasm resembling that of convulsive
patients).
[163] _Larrey_, “Relation historique et chirurgicale de l’expédition
de l’armée d’Orient, en Egypt et en Syrie,” (Historical and Surgical
Account of the Expedition of the Army of the East, in Egypt and Syria),
Paris 1803. p. 116., Pendant le travail de la suppuration, les blessés
furent seulement incommodés des vers ou larves de la mouche bleue,
commune en Syrie. L’incubation des oeufs que cette mouche deposait
sans cesse dans les plaies ou dans les appareils, étoit favorisée par
la chaleur de la saison, l’humidité de l’atmosphère et la qualité de
la toile à pansement (elle étoit de coton) la seule qu’on ait pu se
procurer dans cette contrée. La présence de ces vers dans les plaies
paraissait en accélérer la suppuration, causait des demangeaisons
incommodes aux blessés et nous forçait de les panser trois ou quatre
fois le jour. Ces insectes, formés en quelques heures, se développaient
avec une telle rapidité, que du jour au lendemain, ils étaient de la
grosseur d’un tuyau de plume de poulet. On faisait à chaque pansement
des lotions d’une forte décoction de rhue et de petite sauge, qui
suffisaient pour les détruire; mais ils se reproduisaient bientot après
par le défaut des moyens propres à écarter l’approche des mouches
et à prévenir l’incubation de leurs oeufs. (During the action of
suppuration, the only inconvenience the wounded met with was from the
worms or larvae of the blue fly, common in Syria. The hatching of the
eggs, which this fly was continually depositing in the wounds or their
dressings, was favoured by the heat of the season, the moisture of the
atmosphere, and the nature of the material used for bandages. This was
cotton, the only material for the purpose that could be procured in
that country. The presence of these worms in the wounds appeared to
accelerate their suppuration, caused the wounded men to suffer from
troublesome itchings and forced us to renew the dressings three or four
times a day. These insects, formed in a few hours, developed with such
extraordinary rapidity, that from one day to the next, they reached
the size of a fowl’s quill. At each dressing lotions were applied
of a strong decoction of rue and dwarf sage, which was effectual in
destroying them; but they reappeared again very soon afterwards owing
to the want of proper means for preventing the approach of the flies
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