An historical sketch of medicine and surgery, from their origin to the present time, and of the principal authors, discoveries, improvements, imperfections and errors / by W. Black, M.D.

  • William Black
Date:
1782
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An historical sketch of medicine and surgery, from their origin to the present time, and of the principal authors, discoveries, improvements, imperfections and errors / by W. Black, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    r >49 ] norance of any effcdual remedy for the relief of the unhappy fufferers. The ancients, who were extremely minute in defcribing even the moft infignificant difeafe, could never have omitted the Venereal, whofe fymptoms are fo peculiarly and ftrongly marked, had it been known in their days, In all the ancient medical authors, Hiftorians, Poets, and Satirifts, however obfeene, there is no notice of it. We have the moft decifive evidence that the Spanifh crews on their return from Hifpaniola imported the infeftion into Spain : one fquadron had two hundred vene- real fick. Whoever will take the trouble to perufe cither Le Clerc’s, or Dn Friend’s hiftory of phy- fick, and above all Aftruc de Morbis Venereis, will be fatisfadlorily convinced on this topick. Difpute? refpedling the origin of the venereal in- fedion, in which many of the learned have taken oppofite fides, are in thefe authors inveftigated to the bottom. A conjedure had been ftarted againft the novelty of the American difeafe, from finding a diftant fimilarity in the ulcers of Job, of King Herod, and of the Roman Emperor Tiberius: thefe, with many other objections and abfurd fa- bles, invented to account for this new phenomenon in medicine, are ably refuted by the above writers. The only certain cure and fpecifick for the con- firmed pox, quickfilver^ or mercury, was con- demned by the Greek and Roman phyficians as a poifon, and never ufed internally, nor iii unflions. Avicenna the Arabian, mentions fome cafes of leprofy accompanied with ulcers of the penis, and