contributes as a partial and not the meanest cause 2. A diverso genere causarum Secondly Non iisdem causis nec una via corporibus inductus This Disease having its rise and dependance from several primitive causes and introduced in a different way is thereby variegated and altered in its nature and the Venereal virulency becomes equivocal and various in divers persons The former part or supposition is proved The illation from thence is consonant to reason as various effects naturally arise from several causes Thirdly Non semper contagiosus 3. A contagiosa non contagiosa natura this Disease must needs be of a different nature for as much as the effluviums emitted from some pocky persons are venenate and infectious from others not at all contagious and do not taint or seize by any manner of contamination and this does more evidently appear where we treat of Contagion Fourthly Non aeque contumax difficilis sanatu 4. A facili difficili curatione The virulent nature of this Disease is sometimes very stubborn dispising generous good Medicines and the rules of Art and sometimes of a very facil Cure presently yielding to the power of efficacious proper Medicines 5. A necessitate diversorum remediorum Fifthly Non semper iisdem remediis curandum est I do not find any specific Medicine or peculiar method and tractation of Patients equally successful but some will admit of Cure this way and with such Medicines others must be Cured another way and with different Medicines which argues the nature of the Disease to be various and different As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the former part all practisers I think must confess that have had frequent experience in these Cures the latter or inference is drawn from reason and strong probability I might have illustrated and backed these arguments with some confirmations but I forbear at present until I find this Doctrine opposed As for the remaining part of this Authors definition we shall not prosecute here since that matter falls under distinct heads that I controvert in their proper places viz. the Section of Contagion and that of the seat of this Disease Several other Writers there are that I might animadvert on but that would be too tedious and I think superfluous since their judgments are much involved with those already recited And having thus given you the opinions of some eminent Writers concerning the nature of this Lues and my reasons in short for dissenting from them I come now to declare my own thoughts freely and to be positive in determining the matter And here I shall not define this Disease per genus differentiam the common rule of definitions which being too angust a method will put me upon some unavoidable errors but I shall take such a latitude as best serves my purpose to explicate and detect the difficult and various nature of this grand evil in its contagious and non contagious Generations modes of propagation various appearances fallacious disguise and latency ferocity and calmness contumacy and submission to curative means And here I must premise and lay down some assertions by way of introduction to usher in our subsequent resolves and determinations upon the matter in debate And first you must understand that Diseases in general and in facto esse are signally diversified and distinguished by the various producted aberrations and defections in nature deviating from rectitude and integrity Secondly That morbific causes operate primarily and chiefly upon the vital active and governing principle of humane bodies seducing or constraining that to act irregularly or dissonant from its natural due course from whence the Organs of the body so governed perform depravedly and produce thereby this or that symptom and unwonted effect Thirdly Procuring and occasionall causes variously prompting or enforcing the functions of the body from off their duties do thereby produce variety of irregularities and diseases as various effects answering their different causations Hence the Venereal Lues bears distinguishing Characters and is peculiarly denoted by its train of attending symptoms Fourthly Idiosyncratical propriety of individual bodies may and do produce heterogenious effects though procured by the same or consimiliar causes from hence as a partial cause the Venereal Lues is different in several persons and is not curable but by a different way and means Fifthly That particular parts of the body as their office and organizations are different so have they peculiar morbous effects hence one and the same univocal cause discharging its energy upon divers parts and faculties does thereby produce various symptoms and therefore it is that the venereal virulency appears in various shapes and presents it self in a different train of symptoms if it affect and act upon the membranes great pains ensue if this venom seize upon the parts elaborating or containing the seed then gonorrhea's or an involuntary fluxion of a degenerate sperm is the consequent if the Vrine be tainted it becomes hot and sharp if other humors and juices of the body be infected a foul Catlexy and malign habite of body follows With Spots Scabs or running Vlcers If it arrive to the extern parts of the head the hair loosens and falls off if it invades the bones à caries or rottenness is the product c. so every part is peculiarly stigmatised and marked Sixthly That venenate and malign causes are respective denominations as they stand in opposition and hostility to this or that natural Patient where they exert their destructive power Seventhly That venenate and malign causes are purely natural operate constantly as other Agents circumscribed with due limitations in the sphear of their activity and act as visibly producing sensible effects but are more strange and seemingly abstruse from their unwontedness as not being so familiar and common are therefore unreasonably tearmed occult and particularly this Lues is equally demonstrable with other manifest Diseases so accounted Eighthly Deleterious and malign Diseases although they consent to the impediment disturbance and destruction of nature putting her out of a regular course and harmonious Government leading to mine yet their actions differ much and they take various ways and courses to effect that general end First By a narcotic and soporiferous property or delirious watchings and restlessness Secondly By extream evacuations constipations or stagnations Thirdly By violent pains punging eroding or lancenating Fourthly By colliquations or coagulations Fifthly By Convulsive motions rigid distentions or pertinacious contractions Sixthly By putrefactive degenerations Seventhly By erosions and absumption of parts or tumefaction and superfluous excrescences Eightly By burning inflammations or mortifications and extinction of vitality Such effects are commonly the products of venenate and malign causes and some of these do attend upon and are often the consequents of venereal virulency Ninthly That the corruption of humours in mans body is of greater importance according to the degree of its worth and excellency of its use and therefore the
defining the nature of this Disease says it is excrementum toto genere praeter naturam quod nultifariam laedere potest hominem genitum ex humana substantia à simili Excrementum this Author here sets forth the nature of the Venereal virulency Arguitur by an excrement or degenerate matter in mans body as if it were the product or consequent of some vitiated digestion and had its rise and dependance wholly from internal causes and defections in nature not by any contamination from external primitive Causes and contagious infection received ab extra Toto genere praeter naturam This part of the definition may as well agree and be applied to Worms that are generated in Mans body as to this Lues and does not at all distinguish and discover the subtle nature thereof and therefore this Philosopher did miss the matter very much in explicating and laying open the abstrusity of this Lues which is the intention and scope of every definition Macolon a Scotchman Doctor in this faculty and Professor at Pisa above fifty years since put forth a Book of this Disease wherein he calls the Galenists to an account severely for their determinations upon this malady recites their opinions and rejects them as frivolous in a very few words At last he produceth his own judgment and results the whole disceptation into this theorem Macolon theor Chym. Luis Vener Cap. 5. Lues venerea impuritas est salis Mercurii specifica contagiosa prognata è seminibus quae prius in superiore orbe delitescentia posleaque germinantia quaedam corpora humana parata ad ea suscipienda primò invasere ad alios contage vel haereditario jure propagata sunt If any one can pick out his meaning and set forth a rational probability of truth comprised herein it is more than I shall undertake to do By the Narrative and Series of these reports you may plainly see how far the opinions of learned Men in this Profession do lye asunder and how hazardous it is to presume upon any single judgment though Men of Fame and great repute in their times To comment and inlarge upon every extravagant opinion would give the Reader more trouble than profit therefore in short I only name some of them and pass on others I insist upon that you may be acquainted with the variety of perswasions upon this subject whereby you will be better able to establish and fix your judgment when you meet with the truth After all we come now to inquire of Sennertus one sufficiently known to be a judicious grave Writer that hath gleaned up many good notions that lies scattered here and there in antique and modern Writings besides the additions and improvements of his own that are very learned and considerable This Author after he had perpended various opinions concerning the nature and causes of this malady sets down his judgment of it in this definition Lues Venerea est morbus occultus peculiariter malignus Sennert pract lib. vi pars 4. Cap. 4. contagione in ductus contagiosus hepati facultati nutrienti inprimis adversus propterea nutritione in toto corpore laesa varios morbos symptomata excitans I need not render it in English being very plain and intelligible to the meanest Capacities in the Latine tongue as for others I doubt the discourse will not be very beneficial We will examine this definition in the several parts distinctly as coming from one whose authority perswades much being a general approved Author for Conduct in practice his works summarily comprising the most and best of what hath been written before him But since his time we have had great discoveries and much of that Doctrine is laid aside by the most ingenious sceptical Philosophers of this Age And had that laborious Author been so fortunate as to be acquainted with what some notable heads are masters of now I doubt not but he would have reformed his works rebuilt physick laid it upon another foundation therefore let none think it strange to set aside this Authors opinions though a man of great worth and industry in his time to the purpose in hand then Est morbus occultus Sennertus here adhering to the Doctrine of occult and manifest qualities Sennert defiâ—â—â—tio disceptatur and not finding the nature of the Venereal Lues amongst the manifest qualities assigns it to an occult Which indeed is as much as to say I know not of what nature the Venereal Lues is and herein consents with our Author Minadous Fernelius Mercatus and others as to the occult nature yet they differ about it whether a quality or substance But I see no reason why we should take shelter under this Asylum ignorantiae that this Lues should be occult in its nature since it does discover it self by manifest Characters resulting from its peculiar nature as Gonorrhaea Pustuls Vlcers c. and when we come to Philosophise upon these we may trace them in their causation as far and with as much satisfaction as we can do any other Disease arising from manifest qualities as they call them The Stone and Worms are not accounted occult Diseases yet when they come to render an account of their production they will meet with as many difficulties as in laying open the nature of the Venereal Lues and Spiritus Virulescens may be as good Philosophy and as evident and plain as Spiritus Lapidescens and Lumbrificans and so they are equally manifest and no more occult the one nor the other As for the Generation of Stones it is very learnedly discoursed by a late * Dr. Sherly's Philosoph Essay of petrification Writer worth your perusal Who knows any thing more in Causes than what is discovered and manifest to us by the effects we know nothing à priori and if so then I can see no reason but that the Venereal Lues is as truly to be accounted a manifest Disease as a common Feaver I do not say that all Diseases are equally manifest and discoverable alike to all persons in regard some Diseases are more rare and infrequent not obvious to every eye and some are more intricate implicite and intangled with other Diseases therefore not so easily to be determined of because sometimes disguised with other complicated affects of a semiotic or signal affinity as the Pox and Scurvy not to be judged of by common heads but this is not sufficient to give a denomination of occult but only of difficult Therefore true it is this Lues is not a manifest Disease to every Emperick though impudently they undertake it and as imprudently some resign themselves into such hands to be abused nor yet to every legal Professor it is not so patent in its nature as some other Diseases but to the most acute sagacious Physician it lies open and discoverable as a Feavor in its nature and diagnostick signs A Feaver you 'l say is easily known by a
Characters of this Lues Therefore we must seek out some other part that may rightly be stiled proprium subjectum the constant place of residence or chief seat of its abode Others by a parallel argument with the former as Leonicenus Gasper Torella Rondeletius and others would prove the frontier or exterior parts of the body to be the chief seat being thus perswaded from the defaedations of the skin that frequently are conspicious on persons contaminated with this Disease as spots pustuls tettars scabs Vlcers that erupt upon the superficies of the body And upon this error Torrella Physician to Pope Alexander the sixth grounds his definition of this Lues in these words Gasp Tor. tract de Pudendagra Est defaedatio universalis cutis corporis cum dolore excoriatione modica As if this Disease were seated only upon the superficies of the body and did not reside in the inward parts which is against all reason for the juices of the body being first tainted and alienated from their balsamic natural good state cause those eruptions and external appearance and to make this Disease to be only or chiefly a defaedation of the skin when oftentimes the intrinsic parts are more injured corrupted and putrid is against common experience to affirm And although I do not deny but that this infections Lues may be caught by external contact only as the common itch may be taken and goes no deaper than the surface of the body rarely yet most commonly those external Characters that flourish the skin are the pullulations and blossoms that put forth and spring from a radix that hath a deep insertion and is profoundly planted in the body Guliel Rondelet lib. de morb gallico And Rondeletius then Chancellour and Regius Professor at Monpelier runs upon the same rock in defining this Lues to be an evil distemper of external parts For although the external parts be sometimes disfigured and branded with this foul Disease yet it is not always so and then for the most part erupting from within therefore the exterior parts are ill assigned to be subjectum morbi and the definition to point thither only or chiefly Herc. Saxon de Lue Ven. Cap. 3. Hercules Saxonia will have the subject of this Disease to vary according to the progress thereof and assigns the natural spirits for its place of residence in the beginning of this evil but the excrementitious humours to be the chief seat in the increment and the alimentary humours in the state and vigour of this malady Some stand for the genitals to be the chief seat and part primarily affected because most commonly this Lues makes its ingress and invasion here and presently stamps manifest impressions of its contagious nature upon these parts as dysury gonorrhaea inflammation tumor Vlcers c. which gradually coming on gives notice and plainly declares that this subtle enemy hath made entrace is planted and seated here as the chief place where to exercise and appear in its severe malign power and grandeur Notwithstanding the major party and more eminent men as Fallopius Massa Tomitanus Brassauolus Mercatus Montanus Forestus Sennertus c. give in their suffrages for the Liver to be the principal seat of the Venereal Lues and this part carries it from the rest by many Votes Massa a Venetian Physician assigns these two reasons for his opinion first that the Liver is membrum generativum massae humoralis the fountain from whence ariseth all the humors of the body secondly that from thence nutrition and the natural faculties are derived But these Hypotheses on which his opinion is grounded are found to be erroneous from the new Doctrine of circulation and exploded by most in these times and therefore our Author arguing exfalsò suppositis we need not answer further to the arguments offered Fallopius upon the same error gives in his verdict for the Liver Tomitanus does the like Mercati argumentum lib. de morb gallic Cap. 1. Mercatus also the learned Spaniard being biassed with that doctrine urgeth the same argument and moreover adds that the venom of this Lues by a peculiar propension to and sympathy of parts does fly to the Liver and infect there as an opthalmy or sore eye does hurt a sound eye or a phthisis of the Lungs is apt to set a tabid impression upon the Lungs of another by intimate and near approaches so the Venereal virulency dischargeth it self upon the Liver particularly and especially from the mutuation and consent of parts But notwithstanding this Author be grave and solid in his Writings yet I cannot admit of his reasons to prove what he contends for Arguitur And although I grant that an opthalmy or phthisis may send forth injurious miasms and dart upon the like parts to infest them with the same Disease yet here he begs the question and supposeth a concession that the Liver is always tainted in this Disease which I altogether deny where then is the sympathy of parts and although we concede and do admit that the Liver is vitiated in some persons yet then I do not allow that the Liver does more infect another Liver than any other part nor are the effluviums carried to another Liver sympathically or antipathically but promiscuously are transmitted and received into another body by this or that other part where the passage or pores are patent or otherwise infirm and liable to be tainted Besides the comparison will not hold nor is there that parity of reason between Liver and Liver as between eye and eyes or lung and lungs for a transmission communication and reception As for the eyes they act and react upon one another by Vision directly and have no power upon any other part darting and working eminently upon each other which might be illustrated amply and by this means many strange effects are wrought otherwise they have no power nor could one eye infect or hurt another but by gazing long or often and fixing upon each other But from liver to liver there is no such direct passage no such correspondence between them nor operation upon each other nor is their any probability for it And as for a phthisis why that should be infectious to the lungs of another there is good reason for it because the corrupt breath going out of the phthisical person is drawn in and received by another in their near approaches and coming into the aspera arteria of the sound person is by that canale immediately conveighed through various ramifications into the whole parenchyma of the Lungs which being totally pervious and of a spongious substance is very susceptible and obnoxious to alterations from the quality of inspired air And having imbibed phthisical corruptive miasms in the breath may lodge and six there changing the natural tone of the lungs into a tabid and corruptive state but from liver to liver there is no such speedy conveyance no such capacity to receive nor aptitude to act
upon each other Sennert sententia Sennertus being guided by his Predecessors asserts much what to the same purpose that the Venereal virulency being inimical to nutrition does more peculiarly aim at and offend the natural faculty which natural power he takes for granted and unquestionable to be seated in the liver and therefore concludes that to be the part primarily affected from whence as the Fountain all ill symptoms of the other parts do issue from and are fed from thence Thus supposing the liver to be officina sanguificationis and in this Disease the bloud being commonly much tainted and corrupted it was thought very rational that this must proceed from the impurity of the Fountain but the liver now being discharged from the supream office of sanguification upon latter and more exact inquiries and is not found to be membrum principale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as formerly hath been asserted and maintained the opinions depending thence fall to the ground And further we have to say that the liver is not always the seat of this evil according to the opinion of some nor that it is for the most part their primariò resident according to the sense of others is further cleared from the discourse following Diseases in respect of their scituation and residence may be divided into two parts First such as claim a peculiar part of the body to abide in for their proper station and where they exercise their power eminently and are particular defects and aberrations of those faculties and parts from whence commonly they have a proper denomination or some adjunct pointing at the part affected as Pleurisies Colicks Cephalalgyes dysenteries iliaca passio peripneumonia's c. Secondly there are others of a larger extent and erratic power that are not confined to any particular part but challenge the whole body for their subject and appear here or there or chiefly here and remisly there without restraint variously and are unlimited and such are contagious Diseases of the highest rank venenate pestilential and virulent which seize sometimes here and sometimes there and spread variously in the body and this from the primitive causes and manner of invasion from the different nature of the malignity and from the different propriety of bodies tainted all which being multifarious makes grâ—â—â— difference as to the spreading and appearing of Diseases in this or that part more eminently though the whole body be subjectum morbi that is every part liable and no part constantly the chief seat of residence In this latter rank we must place the Venereal malady whose virulency being received into the body or quartering upon the frontiers does not commonly stop at the part first infected but as other Venoms does creep into the more intimate recesses and taints other parts of the body Secondly no part of the body is exempt and secure but liable to the infection either by communication and transmission from other parts affected or by the first seizure and attacque Sometimes the mouth lets it into the body by kissing sometimes the breast receives it first by suckling a pocky Child others are first seized and clapt in the genitals and some take it by Bed Cloths Garments or such like and the contagion enters the pores in divers parts and the body liable on all sides and being thus let in does then circulate with the bloud and perambulate divers regions of the body and such parts as are most infirm and less able to stand in their integrity this virulency invades and makes impressions propter inequale robur partium imparem resistentiam sometimes upon the brain and nerves sometimes the lungs and begets pocky asthmaes phthises sometimes the kidneys neck of the bladder throat groin c. Planting Vlcers there and sometimes the liver goes not free but this part escapes as oft as the rest which hath plainly appeared upon frequent dissections after Death that the liver hath evaded sound when other parts have been wasted and rotten And therefore we conclude this Venereal Disease hath no setled abode but is vagrant and it is uncertain where this virulency will pitch and seat it self nor is there any place of constant residence which might more at large be proved but for brevity sake I pass on as thinking what hath been said may give sufficient satisfaction CHAP. VII Whether this Lues be Contagious or Infectious and the manner of giving and receiving it IT is generally agreed upon amongst Authors that this Disease is Contagious So affirms Montenus Massa Rondeletius Ferrerius Maynardus Fallopius Fernelius Tomitanus Andr. Mathaeolus Victorius Mercatus Sennertus and many others And that you may the better understand what this contagious Disease is and the manner of its propagation it is necessary you should know what is meant by contagion or infection the several acceptations of the word and the different degrees or sorts thereof Contagiâ— tres gradus Contagion may be considered in a threefold degree or contagious Diseases may be divided into three ranks or sorts First such as may be communicated by length of time in frequent copulation or intimate approaches and contact by lying together and thus a phthisis scurvy or notable Cachexy are contagious and may be transmitted to their Bed-fellows Secondly such as more eminently and sooner does infect as the Venereal Lues Itch c. Thirdly Such as are of the greatest force and power that seizeth at a distance and is very mortal as the plague Contagii quadruplex acceptatio Contagion also may be taken four ways or considered in a fourfold respect either as it is a Disease impressed and then denotes a preternatural affect introduced by communication or contact from another body so affected or it may be considered abstractly in its nature and so it is termed venenosa qualitas or it may be lookt upon as it is in action efflux or operation and so it is actio inficiens contagiosa or as the medium communication and contact and so it is inquinamentum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or effluvium These two last considerations or acceptations respecting the Venereal Lues only we shall discuss and lay open as proper in this place To the act of infection also or tainting in this Disease there are three requisites the person or body infecting that does communicate Secondly the virulent miasm transmitted or communicated Thirdly the person infected that does receive the taint The Person infecting or communicating this Lues does not loose his Disease or give it away to the person infected but does emittere send forth some virulent exhalations which seize and take hold of the other and the person giving is not acquitted thereby The persons giving or tainting are not alike but some with more force and greater virulency do dart out and impress the idaea of this Lues upon their Companion and so much variation their is in the nature of this Disease that some persons although they are apparently marked with this Lues and
upon the land which infected the air and so begate this Disease Joannes Benedictus a German Benedict who wrote above a hundred years since will have this Disease to be of late standing unknown to Hipocrates Galen Avicen or other ancient Physicians and calls it the Disease of St. Maevus Hieronimus Fracastorius Fracastor lucubrat de syphil thwarts this opinion and would have this Disease to be antique to have its risings and settings to appear and disappear for a long time and that after such intermission at its first advent it hath been accounted new Gasper Torrella writ a Tract of this Disease and calls it Pudendagra Torella because commonly seated in the Privities of Man or Woman Ferrarius gives it the same name others call it Mentagra Aurelius Minadous Minadous a Physician of Venice put out a Tract of this Disease in the year 1596. after he hath reckoned up several opinions he produceth his own in these words ego sum ex illorum Classe qui putant fuisse semper hunc morbum Cum enim considero eadem natura praeditos homines eodem Coelo natos sub iisdem syderibus educatos cum idem sit mundus qui fuit olim cumque nec dierum nec horarum nec omnino nino temporum ordo sit immutatus non potest mihi aliter in captum mentis pervenire quam omnes fuisse semper eisdem morbis obnoxios potuisse semper vigere haec mala multa non esse nova ex se sed nobis videri nova causas naturales milies easdem extitisse similem morbum ex causis similibus etiam superioribus aetatibus potuisse contingere which words are much what the same with Leonicenus that writ of this Disease 90. years before him Leonicen libell de Epidem and was the first Italian Physician that put forth a Book of this Malady To be brief I shall sum up the number of dissenting Authors and divide them into two Companies as I find them to stand opposite in opinion recorded in their own Works And first for the novelty of this Disease are these Physicians following men of repute and fame especially in those times and places when and where they exercised this Profession Scriptores pro novitate hujus morbi litigantes Bapt. Montanus Jacob Cataneus Nichol. Massa Joan. Benedictus Vlrychus de Hutten Windel Hoch Laur. Phrysius Aloysius Lobera Pet. Maynardus Anton. Benivenius Fallopius Fernelius Petronius Rondeletius Forestus Sennertus On the contrary party who contend for the Antiquity of this Disease are these Physicians men of note Sebast Aquilanus Nicol. Leonicenus Medici pro antiquitate luis vener disceptantes Anton. Scanarolus Joan. Paschalis Bened Victorius Franc. Vallesius Reusner â—inadous Joan. Langius Having shewed you the different opinions of Authors concerning this point Authoris determinatio it remains I should give in my own sentiment and determine the controversie First I allow that all Diseases incident to humane nature Judicatio 1. did not appear in the World together but have their priority of existence in several Ages sutable and answering to the condition of places as they came to be inhabited as also the various state and alteration of bodies by the commixture of people of different Climates or variously tainted with Diseases ingenerating with each other also by spontaneous declensions and degeneration of depraved nature by various diaetetic causes strange accidents and unwonted procurements from whence new Diseases do assurge and sprout forth old Diseases become rare and commute Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must affirm That the Pox is not always the Parent of the Pox but untainted persons using immoderate unusual and bestial Venery may procure the first symptoms leading to this Lues which neglected may introduce and settle the Pox. Thirdly That Venery and the enormities thereof being antique the product Lues we may well judge antique also Fourthly That the Venereal Evil is no new Disease as some do imagine but antique though not mentioned by Hippoc. Galen and the Ancients under those Titles it now goes by yet the symptoms of those Diseases which they describe are very like to those belonging to this malady and probably might issue from the same procuring causes and sprout forth from the same Seminary Fifthly That the variation of some symptoms now in this Disease by time persons or places is not sufficient to denominate it new except you can find out a new radix or spring from whence it doth arise for else all Diseases upon the same account may be called new from their unwonted Phaenomena and different appearance and this of necessity will be and hath ever been from diversity of bodies different complications with other Diseases and individual propriety which sets as it were a new face and different garb upon every Disease though the same in specie in radice modo generationis and as nature is not constant in her uniform and regular actions and the due oeconomy of humane bodies much less may we expect it in her disorder and preternatural motions Sixthly That the Venereal Pox being something changed and altered in the symptoms now from what it was at its first breaking forth at the Seige of Naples or rather their more plain discovery in Europe may upon good grounds be supposed to have then not its rise but augmentation and aggravation since many and most of the attending symptoms were observed by the ancients long before Seventhly That this Venereal malady was not so familiar was not so much noted and inquired into before the Seige of Naples but being brought over from America as an additional taint to propagate and spread more plentifully in Europe and to make it more fierce and raging which busied the heads of Physicians to inquire more nicely into the matter to denominate it peculiarly to invent methods for Cure and new Medicines CHAP. III. The Progress and propagation of the Venereal Lues into several Countries Luis Vener historica narratio IN giving you the Historical Narrative of this Disease we shall take our rise but from the year 1492. about which time the Spaniards made a Voyage under the conduct of Columbus into America to discover that part of the unknown World And although this Lues bears an ancienter date and derives its Pedegree far before that time yet we have so little account of it recorded by Writers that it will not well admit of a Narration But after this expedition of the Spaniards it became so notorious that many since have spent their judgments in remarking what was most considerable and obvious to their reasons in the various passages that frequently occurred We must then in this part of our discourse depend upon the credit of Authors and collect the Historical Account from the most authentick Writers The Spaniards arriving in that Septentrional part of America about the latitude of Florida where confidently 't is reported this Lues is endemical
preternatural heat and burning which is manifest and likewise I say the Venereal Lues is as easily known to an expert Physician by a Gonorrhaea Pains Pustuls Scabs c. But here is the difference a Feaver is known in the common titular notion only by heat alone which is but one signal the Pox by a syndrome or concurrence of many So likewise the Scurvy Plague and others are not manifested by a single diagnostic but by a Convent consenting But this Feaver which is so easie to be known and apparent by heat as you say If I inquire of you the true nature thereof what this preternatural heat is and how it does kindle from what principle and where the radix or fomes morbi is I fear that this Feaver will be an occult Disease also to a great many of our Professors who knows nothing beyond tradition and the old erroneous Doctrine of Feavers A Feaver takes its denomination from heat a general signal which attends all sorts of Feavers but if you know no more of a Feaver than what this common Character does discover and manifest your knowledge is very shallow and avails little to adapt a Cure thereby for Feavers as different as the Causes from whence they arise and they are many their nature very different and various and as secret in their Causes as this Lues requiring a different method of Cure Colds heats repletion of indigested matter obstructions surfits discordant food intemperate drinking watchings small Pox Worms and the verminous putredinous matter of which they are generated c. which Feavers are more abstruse in their Causes and little thought of in their Cures whereby the common way of Curing Feavers becomes so fatal to many and this I am perswaded to believe from the imprudent irrational practice that most commonly is used in the Cure of Feavers by bleeding blistering and Julips for did they understand aright what it is that does aestuate and raiseth a febril heat and the occasional causes or provocation thereto they would take more proper courses for remedy and institute other manners of Cure but of this more at large elsewhere Tract of the Scurvy Chap. 11. therefore I pass on that I may not disjoint our main intended discourse with too long digressions The generating of Worms in Mans body is mustered up amongst the manifest Diseases but this strange production is not to be ascribed to any of the manifest qualities therefore lumbrisication is as occult as the venereal virulency and oftentimes is a more latent and abstruse Disease for as much as the symptoms or preternatural effects attending are common to many other Diseases not distinguishable certainly to whom they belong but conjecturally and probably But the first and second qualities being more familiar to us and more frequently occurring therefore they must be manifest the rest must be occult and this * Sennert Author with others of the same Tribe in distinguishing and setting forth the difference between manifest and occult qualities seems to be very exact and says those are occult quae non sensibus ratione Institut med lib. v. pars 1. Sect. 1. Cap. 2. sed sola experientia deprehenduntur and those he calls manifest quae sensus nostros afficiunt quarum causa manifesta reddi potest First Here I would fain know what qualities properties results or emanations from causes are so occult as does not affect some of our senses and whether we do take cognisance of any thing but by their effects which are the objects of some sense Secondly I would also understand and do demand wherein the causes of the first qualities are so eminently patent above others as to be called manifest Truly for my part I can see no such manifest causation the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the effects are plain the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is obscure dark enough in the Fountain from whence such effects do emane and spring forth The fire heats and burns that 's plain but why Our Author makes this answer Ibidem ignis id praestat quia calidus Pray where is the manifest causation now it is so because it is so but he seems to Philosophise something better in the same Chapter where he complies with the opinion of those that determine both manifest and occult qualities to issue primariò forma substantiali and he will have the manifest qualities to emerge from the substantial form and peculiar mixtion of the Elements but the occult from the substantial form alone Now if we examine and inquire why Water is cold and moist manifest qualities and desire the reasons of such a nature the answer then according to this Philosophy must be that it is so from the substantial form and mixture of Elements and if we ask why poisons occult qualities work such strange effects the answer is that such energies proceed from their substantial form alone Now judge whether are more manifest in their causes the former or the latter for my part I think both alike and the distinction of manifest and occult to be useless as having no real foundation From this discourse wherein I might have enlarged if it were necessary we may set aside the occult nature of the Venereal Disease and allow it to be as manifest as other Diseases to judicious men being so well known by the sensible products and apparent effects that follow and assurge from thence and other Diseases are discovered in like manner à posteriori which gives occasion to discourse of and assign their causes from the greatest probabilities and strongest perswasions of reason Now we shall dismiss this and come to the next considerable in the definition Et peculiariter malignus Our Author here determines and distinguisheth the Venereal Lues by a peculiar malignity which being the Constitutive specific difference in the definition must be understood as the proper inseparable distinguishing Character univocally agreeing with the whole species morbi and the same in every individual person seized with this Disease and according to this Doctrine are the Cures promiscuously instituted and appointed without distincton save only a respect had to the fictitious temperaments arising from elementary mixtion But I am otherwise perswaded and must assert contrary to this Doctrine that Lues venerea non est morbus peculiariter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malignus à specifica quadam proprietate corruptionis ortus The Venereal virulency is not of one univocal specific nature but diversified and variously different in several individuals tainted with this Venereal malignity The reasons inducing me to this opinion are both theorical and practical drawn from the rules of Art and therapeutic observations in different Cures First Argu. 1. A dissimilitudine symptomatum seu phoenomenw̄n Quia non semper sibi similis this Disease hath a different aspect and is Characterised variously in several persons and although symptomatical and signal dissimilitude is procured upon some other accounts yet this equivocal nature
degeneration of the bloud is worse than that of the chyle and the depravedness of the nervous succus is more prejudicial than that of the bloud but a virulent putrefaction of the sperm is worse in its nature than either being an extract elaborated and refined from both and this is confirmed by the common axiom Corruptio optimi est pessima And this corruption is not ordinary for it arrives to such a height and degree that not only the same body is overspread with its malignity but it also infects and injures another and is most commonly contaminating and contagious to others hence venereal virulency is derived to posterity and propagated to familiars with whom they do converse and having such ways of continuation of all contagious Diseases this seminary abides most certainly and is most likely to outlast all others Tenthly That venereal virulency in general is not of a homogenous nature but in some of a more fierce contagious and destructive properties in others not so venenate malign and spreading but lodgeth and abides in the body more sedate and placidly and makes not so great a disturbance and apparent alteration from whence it is sometimes doubted whether it be the right Lues or something else affine thereto and puts many to a stand in their determination of the matter Eleventhly That the sting or pocky effluviums of venereal virulency darting upon the parts of a another body and entring the pores does then seduce or compel the vital governing principles of those parts from off their functions to a peculiar enormity conspiring with their own nature and producing such effects common to this Disease Twelfthly That the Venereal Lues is not always propagated contagiously but takes its rise spontaneously sometimes from sound persons using immoderate unfitting and bestial venery for as this Lues hath had its birth by such natural means or causes so likewise probably is often generated by the same procuring ways and may begin again from the same primitive causes aequipollent to its original descent and production Thirteenthly That the Venereal Lues in the fountain of natural causes contained in the body does assurge from a vitiated impure sperm arriveing to a contagious malignity whether the primitive cause be unlawful and undue coition or other corrupters of seed in such Climates where this Lues is accounted endemical CHAP. V. Various Phaenomena and Diagnostick signs discovering the Venereal Lues in several gradations Lues Vener dispar aspectus THis Disease is variegated by the diversity and train of attending symptoms and seldom appears alike in two persons but by the absence or presence of this or that sign does present it self with a different face and peculiar garb And this dissimilitude or variety of appearance is procured upon a fourfold account First The different nature or virulency of the person giving or communicating it Virulentiae Varia dispositio makes the impression upon the party receiving it either better or worse more or less contaminated according to the various malignity of the aggressor or pocky person infecting who darts the veneous miasms with greater or lesser force and is more or less virulent from whence the products are different and causeth various and dissimilar symptoms Secondly The different idiosyncrasia Individualis natura personae contiminatae the disparity or peculiar properiety of bodies that are tainted modifies the venom differently and receives the venerous sting more calmly or impatiently with more or less antipathy and averseness to this or that nature Quicquid recipitur recipitur per modum recipientis whereby in some the venom ferments and breaks out sooner and more conspicuously with plain Characters that every one may read or else in others it lies more sluggish and dormant lurks more slily and dissembles this or that other Disease which consens vulgar judgments in determining what 's the matter Thirdly Contagium recipiendi modus The manner of receiving this contagion and different parts affected puts this Disease into a singular mode and peculiar dress for if it be received by fond embraces only and kissing of the lips it blossoms there first and appears with scabby cruptions and a sore mouth commonly but if it be gotten by the tail 't is not presently charactered in the face or other parts but stays some time in the Lord-Countries the place of its conception and birth afterwards travells into other Regions of the body and appears here and there with variety of ugly shapes and unwelcome salutes to its new quarters as pains pimples itch spots scurs scabs c. Fourthly Morbi senioritas The seniority and duration of this malady in the body makes great alteration and different Phaenomina a recent young Pox before it comes to Age hath not such a train of attendants nor gives the same livery as a confirmed or inveterate Pox. The infancy of this Disease if taken by copulation presents to you only with a sharp hot Urine and some diffitulty in making water or some gleeting seminal excretion which continuing to discharge the virulency keeps of the rest of its fellows from appearing upon the Stage and acts a part alone for some time afterwards comes in soreness inflammation Vlcers c. and so proceeds on by time increasing the number of Actors in this tragedy gradually arriving to a confirmed after that an inveterate Pox which will then exhibite to your view a Hospital of Diseases and scare you with variety of deformities and strange defects in nature there you will see the lame swinging between two crutches the faltering snuffling speech the mattery blear eyes the down fallen nose the rotten palate the scabby face the stinking breath c. what not Having given you the Capital reasons why this Venereal Lues is so diversified and unlike in several persons Symptomatum syndrome it remains I should draw up in their order the whole Company and train of pocky symptoms placing them in that method and rank as most commonly they do present upon the sick for your better understanding the series and order or gradual increment of this grand Disease And here I shall distribute all the Phaenomena or appearance of this malady into three divisions Lues Venereae incipientis signa First Such as make the onset and seize the patient in the beginning Secondly Such as discover the increment or progress Angescentis vestigia and confirms the radication of it Thirdly Such as display all its colours Inveteratae stigmata represents its monstrous full growth and exhibites the most deplorable and most formidable defects of nature Discovering signs of the first rank emerging from this Lues Classis signorum are such as attend its minority and they commonly are more mild obscure and dubious except they arise from a very soul copulation such as may be the products of other Diseases and give occasion of suspicion and inquiring into their causes As those who are tainted by
cannot admit of any other title yet as to contagion or infection I cannot say it is an inseparable adjunct for if it were so doubtless the Husband could not lye with his Wife so long together as I have known by several but both must be infected if either but that it is so frequent examples do testifie sometimes on the mans part and sometimes on the womans that they have not injured their Bed-fellows And therefore I cannot affirm this Disease always to be contagious though ut plurimum most commonly it is so and this is not for any to presume or confide in but to beware for such cases are rare And further I would have you know that although sometimes Husband and Wife in their moderate and cooler acts of coition may not injure each other yet if another person deals with either of them that is tainted I question very much whether the sound person that is a stranger shall escape so well as the constant Bed-fellow and I rather think not for the fiercer acts of copulation and fiery repetitions between strangers are more dangerous and expose to a more certain detriment Parallel to this and by way of proof for our opinion take this experiment Two sound persons adventuring upon an unsound one after the other the first hath come of untoucht the latter hath been clapt and this because the first act being more cool had not exasperated the latent virulency but by repetition of the same the spirits are then inflamed and the pocky ferment rouzed up made hot and fierce becomes more venomous and seizes the second Copartner And here you must take notice that this Disease is not always given by a person immediatè but sometimes mediatè an infected Bed or Garment will do the same wherein the virulent miasms of this Lues ly dormant as other contagious seminaries do the like but by the approach of warm bodies do revive are attracted and communicated to them and received in by the pores of the body In the next place we are to consider what these miasms or infectious seminaries are that pass from body to body Some give them the denomination of vapour others a spirit from their subtility and penetration not that they are void of corporiety but we shall not trouble our selves upon the name provided we rightly know what is meant thereby We are therefore to understand them as Corpuscles or subtile finer invisible bodies which are minute small portions exhaling from infected bodies of the same nature and taint as the bodies from whence they were emitted These venenous particles of contagious matter are agile and penetrative that they insinuate themselves through the pores of other bodies and being entered do then ferment and operate to alter and change their new receptacles and tincture them with the like labes of their own virulent nature Next we must consider the persons tainted or receiving this venereal Contagion herein we may observe great difference for as the persons infecting are not alike in virulency but are more or less contagious as before we noted so likewise the persons receiving or liable thereto are not equally disposed to receive this virulency Corpora ad contagium recipiendum apta inepta but some make a stronger resistance and reject it others more readily yield and imbibe the pocky effluviums that are emitted from unsound bodies and this difference there is with all bodies in respect of contagion of what nature soever that some more easily and sooner are infected others not and this is manifest in the pestelential contagion whereto many are equally exposed and endangered yet some escape others are seized therewith And so much diversity there is in the capacity of bodies or aptitude for reception of any contagion for instance which I know to be true some have been Bed-fellows to pestilential bodies and have escaped free others have been seized with the Plague that have kept a good distance from any person so infected And thus it happens to bodies relating to the Venereal Lues some are soon caught others not some may lye with a pocky person and not be tainted others are infected by intimate converse and ordinary touch only by garments or an infected Bed and therefore it is very uncharitable to censure every person tainted with the Venereal Lues as lewd and vitious when as this malady hath assaulted the most virtuous and innocent persons Contagium recipiendi modus Now for explicating the manner of reception and determining the parts primò recipient or detegent you must take notice that this Disease is either hereditary or adventitious hereditary when received from the father or the mother in Generation or before the birth either male or female is sufficient to taint the off-spring if the Father be unsound in his body his seed also is tainted for if the bloud be impure and contaminated the genital seed also will participate being an extract elaborated from the mass of bloud Cujus causa est mala id ipsum est malum Likewise the unsound mother does infect the foetus in her Womb although the Masculine seed be sound because she nourisheth it with her impure bloud if it will not be admitted that he contributes semen in the act of generation In this case of an hereditary taint it is uncertain where or in what part this Lues will first appear and blossome because the seminary or ferment of this Disease is diffused through the whole body and sometimes it first buds and breaks out in one part sometimes in another and is not constant But it is otherwise when this Disease is adventitious after the birth excepting the case of an infant infected by an unsound Nurse for then the Venereal virulency seizeth and sastens upon one part of the body more especially which commonly makes the first complaint and discovers the evil at least gives cause for inquiry what is the matter of such alteration and unwonted symptoms Lues Ven. per coitum Contracta If this Contagion be taken by impure copulation the Man or the Woman being infected does by that act and intimate congress give it to the other that was sound and then the privy parts most frequently makes the first discovery by sharpness and heat of Vrine c. especially if either were afflicted in the genitals but if otherwise the virulency of this malady fastens upon other parts of the body does then lurk longer before any alteration be perceived but in time does bud forth and shew it self causing indisposition pain in the head or other parts and proceeds gradually if not corrected to display those symptoms as we have enumerated in the preceding Chapter where the diagnosticks of this Lues is set down nor does this venom keep its station and abide in the part that first received it but commonly aliorum venenorum more perambulates and penetrates through the body perverting the crases of other parts and alienating them from the rectitude of their offices and
ut signum causa as hope joy and mirth which enables the mind to bear the infirmities of the body with more ease and less prejudice for the faculties do then exert their energy more strenuously and are not so soon depraved and perverted in their functions but contend and struggle with the assaults of this or any other Disease and being thus fortified and kept up in their vigour they are not so apt to receive the impressions of Diseases nor decline so suddenly when they are seâ—zed But Fear makes the Soul to shrink and wither abates her influence upon all the faculties whereby they languish and grow weak not performing their duties as they ought And melancholy layes a weight and clog upon the springs of the faculties so that they move heavily unduly and with great deficiency which gives considerable advantage to the prevailing power of this malady Anger raiseth the spirits but with disturbance with confused irregular motions and makes a tempest in the body fermenting the bloud and humors with a turgid preternatural ebullition whereby the virulency of this Lues is exasperated and scattered into all parts that before lay dormant at least more quiet and sedate confin'd to some particular region of the body but being agitated and roused up by this furious storm is dispersed into other quarters lodgeth there and infects sound parts CHAP. XI Of Phlebotomy in the Cure of this Lues HAving dispatcht the diaetetick part the next in order to be treated of are Chirurgical or manual operations and here Phlebotomy comes to be discussed whether useful or not in the Cure of this Pox because it is most frequently used in these Cures and most Practisers very formally begin their course with this celebrated remedy as if their method were not compleat if this did not lead the Van. It will not be lost time then but profitable to cast our eye upon the Practice of such Writers as are accounted men of note leaders in the profession at least in these Cures and see how they consent in this point and their reasons for what they do because the age is much governed by tradition and example and think they are safe practisers and what they do is warrantable if they keep the beaten road and have the Authority of their Predecessors to back them and this is one main block that puts a stop to the proficiency and progress of this Science else it would have arrived to a greater perfection and certainty than as now it stands Upon inquiry I find most Authors consent to the administration and use of Phlebotomy as a necessary curative remedy and means yet differing amongst themselves in some circumstances for the admittance in viewing their several appointments herein we shall remark something to be taken notice of from the bias of their various opinions Massa a Venetian Nichol. Massa one of the ancientest Writers upon this Disease declares for bleeding as necessary and urgeth the utility and fitness thereof from this reason that Phlebotomy drains the Liver and Veins which he saith is locus generationis of this Disease and making a depletion or diminution here he supposeth and alledgeth that so much of the antecedent and conjunct morbific cause is abated and taken away and draws in some Canons of Hippoc. Galen and Avicen to confirm this judgment But this Author mistakes the place of generation or chief residence as already proved Chap. 6. â— That I need not repeat here and as for the Authority to second him I see no reason why Hippoc. Galen or Avicen should bear sway here in the Cure of this Disease when as this Author and most others will not allow them or any of the ancients to have any knowledge of this Lues and this Disease being confessed by them to be of an occult nature I judge it therefore to be exempted and not to be regulated by the general therapeutick precepts of the Ancients besides Authority whatsoever is no convincing argument but must give place to reason and experience founded upon latter and better discoveries Almenar a Spaniard Joan Almenar allows phlebotomy in the beginning of this Disease but scruples at it in the progress Cataneus asserts phlebotomy very Jacob. Gatan stifly in all Cases of this Disease where there is signs of plenitude and brings this as an argument the general success that Women have whose monthly courses are constant above others who have not the benefit of that evacuation I answer as to the matter of fact which I might very well question if we give him credit and grant him the quod sit of his observation yet this does not prove sufficiently and clearly the efficacy of phlebotomy for as much as that impediment or obstruction of nature may depend upon or result from some considerable preternatural cause in the body so that the bare retention of the menses did not make the difference in success but the greatness of the cause obstructing might make a great disparity and disproportion in the Cases and therefore success in Cure might not equally follow Besides in comparing Cases together and drawing observations equally from them in curation many circumstances are to be considered and niceties exactly to be weighed relating to the persons the curative regimen and pharmateutick preparations for a parity and levelling the Cases if you will give an impartial judgment and not deceive your self Torrella prohibits phlebotomy when Pustuls appear externally Gasper Torrell for this reason that it does attract the virulent matter inwards and in this case he severely forbids it nam si aliter faceres non esses medicus sed interfector are his own words but in other cases of this Disease allows it And shelters himself under the Protection of Hippoc and Galen whose general rules of phlebotomy he would have to extend hither Hock allows phlebotomy generally in the Cure of this Lues Wendel Hock but agrees with Torrel that it must be forborn when Pustuls appear upon the skin lest it cause a retraction quia convertit repellit scilicet ad interiora illud quod procedit ad exteriora His words Petronius prohibits phlebotomy in general Alex. Trajan Petron. and offers good reason against it as not conducing and proper against this Disease afterwards he falls off and allows it in some Cases which are of no validity to countenance the admission of it and nuls his former arguments by this concession Fallopius appoints bleeding in this Disease upon a threefold account Gab. Fallop as conducing and promoting the Cure first to temper and allay the ebullition in the Liver secondly to diminish or lessen the matter that is to be altered with Medicines and evacuated thirdly to make a revulsion of humors from the Liver that are gathered there haec tria sunt quae indicant nobis sectionem venae says that Author but by his leave we are not obliged to take notice of them otherwise than as vain suppositions for as much
familiar contact and intimate approaches to pocky persons have no appearances of this Lues in the privy parts all may be well there and yet the contagion may have entred and seised the person and the alteration from hence may be only a general change of the body as to the liveliness and vigour thereof some orratick pains twinging here and there in the head and body the countenance changed more pale and dark unwonted melancholy and sadness lassitude heaviness and indisposition to action but if the infection steals in by impure copulation and not of the worser sort then a heat and sharpness of Vrine may molest the Patient with some of the former symptoms For a Gonorrhaea does not always erupt upon coition with a tainted bedfellow and these signs being general or common to other Diseases and not pathognomonical it is not easie nor the work of vulgar heads to determine of what kind they are to whom they belong and from whence they had their being but by strict inquiry into preceding causes and perpending former probabilities and occurrences these being duly collated judgment may truly pass what the Case is A plant when first it puts forth and peeps out of the ground is hard to be known of what kind it is but by a skillful Herbarist which when it is grown up there is no such difficulty and common people can call it by its name Semblably this Lues in its infancy is not apparent but to the most sagacious judgments except in some furious envenomed assaults of this Disease that forthwith indubitably declare the whole matter Discovering symptoms and Characters of the second Classis Classis signorum are such as more apparently owne the Pox for their Parent and they pronounce it confirmed and radicated in the body and of this sort are virulent Gonorrhaea's commonly called the running of the Reins being a green yellowish or other discoloured matter issuring from the privities and in men is more apparent but in women it passeth with them commonly for the whites except when there is great pain inflammation or tumor accompanying which delusion makes them the longer to neglect their Cure and very often the Physician is deceived and takes it for the fluor muliebris trusting to the Womans relation But if there be no such contaminated spermatic Flux then the venemous contagion is more diffusive and spreading into several parts of the body finds out other places to bud forth and vent it self Sometimes it mounts up to the head and face there breaking forth into scurfy pimples pustuls or scabs and sometime they spread all over the body Others have not these extuberant eruptions but their skin only bespotted with small red or yellowish spots intimating the mass of bloud to be tainted and impure Venereous buboes or great hard â—â—ellings in the groin appears in some when the contagion is lodged within and issues not forth by a Gonorrhaea Pains now are more sharp especially towards night and in bed afflicting the head shoulders arms or shins which causeth them to have restless tormenting nights hence appears the hollow eyes and the thin pale shrunk visage for want of natural rest and quiet repose Some are afflicted with painful malign tumors in the fundament like the blind haemorrhoids and the common attending extuberances there Shedding of the hair oftentimes accompanies this Disease when confirmed of the head beard or eye-brows and is a certain sign if pustuls or scabs do appear also Sometimes chaps or clifts in the hands or soles of the feet without a manifest cause Warts or other excrescences in or about the privities do confirm judgment of this Lues Distillation of rheum and hoarseness with a relaxed pendulous Vvula causing difficulty of swallowing is a common confiding symptom Tumors soarness and Ulcers about the genitalls do attest the confirmation of this foul Disease Nor is it to be expected that all these symptoms should concur and appear together in one person in regard of the different nature of the virulency and manner of invasion of this Lues but some or other of them are sufficient reflecting upon preceding causes to pronounce the Disease confirmed An inveterate Pox carries some more or less Classis signorum of these grand symptoms denoting this mallady to be antique more contumacious and deplorable A Consumptive leanness and flaccidity or looseness of flesh throughout the body with a hectic or habitual febril heat commonly adjoined Nodes or hard bunches upon the head arms legs or other parts Hoarseness snufling speaking hollow and through the nose Deafness or ringing noise in the ears and falling out of the teeth Erosion of the palate and sinking of the nose stinking breath strong saedid Vrine pocky tettars here and there Depascent sordid Ulcers in the mouth kidneys bladder secrets or other parts sometimes Fistulous gangrenous or cancerous Caries or rottenness of the bones in this or that part These and such like many more ruinous effects of this cruel malady poor mortals are liable to be stigmatized and tortured with if not prevented by a prudent care and efficacious Medicines to check and eradicate this spreading evil before it arrives to its full growth and monstrous height scarce then to be dealt with but often contemns the medical art and most approved remedies CHAP. VI. Of the Parts primarily affected and seat of the Venereal Lues TOuching the subject or Part principally affected where this grand malady keeps its Court and fixes more eminently as the place of chief residence or head quarters Physicians do not consent and agree herein the reasons of this difference may be gathered out of their several opinions as they stand recorded in their works and that we may the better establish and illustrate the truth of our own assertions concerning this matter we shall briefly run over and discuss some of the chiefest opinions that have been promoted by eminent men in this Profession Some there are that assign the head to be the seat of this Disease being induced thereto from some apparent symptoms that commonly afflicts this part as pains pustuls scabs shedding of the hair distillations noise in the ears c. Which last was so contumacious that Falopius an eminent Physician professeth that no symptom belonging to this Disease was more difficult and troublesom to him than this Ego non habeo symptoma Gab. Fallop tract de morb gallic Cap. 11. quod magis hoc me cruciet testor ignorantiam meam nunquam potui ejus certam invenire ablationem superavi aliquando vel hoc vel illo decocto sed certè non habeo proprium medicamentum are his own words Notwithstanding this Author does not comply with those that would have the head to be the principal part affected for although the head be notably afflicted in some persons yet it is not always so and sometimes the head is free from any impression of this Disease when other parts are not a little stigmatized with the manifest