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
[319] _Aretaeus_, p. 424. loco citato; also De curat. morb. chron. bk.
II. ch. 5., καὶ τοῦ ἀτερπέος τοῦ πάθεος εἵνεκεν καὶ τοῦ κατὰ σύντηξιν
κινδυνώδεος καὶ τῆς ἐς διάδεξιν γένος χρείης λύειν χρὴ μὴ βραδέως
τὴν γονόῤῥοιαν πάντων κακῶν οὖσαν αἰτίην· (Equally on account of the
disagreeable nature of the malady as on account of the risk of _tabes_
or wasting and for the sake of the needful maintenance of posterity,
gonorrhœa should be rapidly cured, being the cause of very many evils).
Truly if not another passage remained to us from the Ancient writers
besides these two of Aretaeus’, they alone would suffice to convince us
of the existence in his time of virulent gonorrhœa brought on by sexual
intercourse; and it is quite inconceivable how _Simon_, Versuch einer
krit. Gesch. (Essay towards a Critical History), Bk. I. p. 24., can
say: “Thus for instance _all_ the symptoms, which Aretaeus mentions in
his Chapter on Gonorrhœa, speak for _true seminal flux_!”
[320] _Theodorus Priscianus_, bk. II. logic, ch. 11., Satyriasis,
gonorrhœa vel priapismus, quibus similis est sub immoderata patratione
molestia, his accidentibus disterminantur. Gonorrhœa sine veretri
extensione vel usus venerii desiderio, spermatis affluentissima sub
effusione corpora debilitat et per chronica tempora producitur.
(Satyriasis, gonorrhœa or priapism, maladies involving similar
inconvenience as in immoderate copulation, are distinguished by the
following particularities. Gonorrhœa without erection of the member
or desire for the enjoyment of love, debilitates the body by a most
copious discharge of semen, and is protracted over chronic periods of
time).
[321] _Julius Firmicus Maternus_, Astronomica bk. III. chs. 7 and 8.,
In loco octavo ♀ ab horoscopo constituto ... si ☿ cum ea fuerit vel
cum ☿ Venerem in hoc loco positam, malevola stella respexerit, vel
per quadratum vel diametrum, vel si cum ipsis, in hoc loco fuerit
inventa, omne eius qui natus fuerit patrimonium dissipatur vel
qualicunque proscriptione nudatur, _mors vero illi per gonorrheam_,
id est _defluxionem seminis_, aut contractionem vel spasmum aut
apoplexin fertur. (In the eighth place determined by the horoscope
stands ♀ Venus.... If ☿ (Mercury) be in conjunction with it, or if
Venus standing in this place with ☿ (Mercury) be faced by an evil
star, whether by quadrate or diameter, or if such star is found in
conjunction with them in this place, all the patrimony of him who has
been born under this conjunction is wasted, or is lost utterly by some
proscription or another, and _his death is brought about by gonorrhœa,
that is to say a flux of the semen_, or cramp or spasm or apoplexy.)
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