[292] _Heyne_, De febribus epidemicis Romae falso in pestium censum relatis Progr., (On certain Epidemic Fevers at Rome incorrectly referred to the Category of Plagues,—a Graduation Exercise), Göttingen 1782., p. 4. (Works vol. III.), Hoc enim erat illud, quod antiquitatem omnino ab subtiliore naturae adeoque et morborum cognitione revocavit et retraxit, quod ea, quae ad interiorem eius notitiam spectabant, inprimisque quae ab solenni rerum cursu recedebant, ad religiones metumque deorum referebantur. (For indeed this was the cause which withdrew and kept back Antiquity generally from a more precise acquaintance with nature and so with diseases, viz. that everything which regarded the more intimate knowledge of it, and above all everything that was somewhat out of the common course of things, became a matter of religious scruples and superstition). Comp. _C. F. H. Marx_, Origines Contagii, (Original Causes of Contagion) Carlrühe and Baden 1824. [293] As a rule they ascribed the origin of the contagion to σῆψις (putrefaction), and from their point of view septic, or putrefactive, diseases were pretty much the same as infectious (_Galen_, De febr. diff. I. 4.). Hence it would seem probable the ἕλκεα σηπεδόνα (putrefying ulcers) were at any rate partly looked at in the same light,—a circumstance of the highest importance as bearing on ulcers of the genitals, as in that case these latter are manifestly represented as being infectious. It is to be hoped that experts will give their decision as to this. At any rate as early as _Galen’s_ time (De locis effect. bk. VI. ch. 5., edit. Kühn Vol. VIII. p. 422.) the action of contagion was regarded as analogous to that of the electric ray-fish (νάρκη θαλάττιος) and the magnet, and the conclusion was drawn: ταῦτά τε οὖν ἱκανὰ τεκμήρια τοῦ σμικρὰν οὐσίαν ἀλλοιώσεις μεγίστας ἐργάζεσθαι μόνῳ τῷ ψαῦσαι. (these then are sufficient evidences of the fact that a small creature may produce very great variations by contact alone). [294] These were treated by the female physicians (αἱ ἰατρίναι), _Galen_, De loc. effect. VI. 5., Vol. VIII. p. 414. and the midwives, who had to examine the female genitals in cases of disease affecting them, and report the results to the Physicians. Σκέψασθαι κέλευσον τὴν μαῖαν ἁψαμένην τοῦ τῆς μήτρας αὐχένος, (bid the midwife examine by touch the neck of the womb), _Galen_ says, loco citato p. 433. [295] _Galen_, De morborum causis, ch. 9., edit. Kühn Vol. VII. p. 39. [296] _Galen_, Methodus medendi bk. II. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 84.