A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with copious additions, by Philip Ricord ; translated and edited, with notes, by Freeman J. Bumstead.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with copious additions, by Philip Ricord ; translated and edited, with notes, by Freeman J. Bumstead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    PAET I. CHAPTER I. OF THE VENEREAL POISON. The venereal disease arises from a poison, which, as it is produced by disease, and is capable of again producing a similar disease, I call a morbid poison, to distinguish it from the other poisons, animal, vege- table, and mineral. The morbid poisons are many, and they have different powers of contamination. Those which infect the body either locally or consti- tutionally, but not in both ways, I call simple. Those which are capable of affecting the body both locally and constitutionally, I call com- pound. The venereal poison, when applied to the human body, possesses a power of propagating or multiplying itself; and, as it is also capable of acting both locally and constitutionally, it is a compound morbid poison. Like all such poisons, it may be communicated to others in all the various ways in which it can be received, producing the same disease in some one of its forms. § 1. Of the first Origin of the Poison. Though the first appearance of this poison is certainly within the period of modern history,1 yet the precise time and manner of its origin has hitherto escaped our investigation, and we are still in doubt whether it arose in Europe or was imported from America. I shall not attempt to discuss this question; and those who wish to examine at length the facts, authorities, and arguments brought in favor of the latter opinion, may consult Astruc; and, for the former, a short treatise2 published in 1 This is not proved.—Ricokd. 2 Entitled A Dissertation on the Origin of the Venereal Disease; proving that it was not brought from America, but began in Europe from an epidemical distemper. Trans- lated from the original manuscript of an eminent physician. London, printed for Robert Griffiths, 1751. [The author's name is Antonio Nunes Ribeiro Sanchez. He was born at Pogna-Ma- coen, Portugal, in 1699, and died at Paris, October 14, 1783. His work was published in French, and entitled Dissertation on the Origin of the Venereal Disease, proving that it was not brought from America, and that it commenced in Europe by an Epidemic. Paris, 1753. He afterwards published An Historical Investigation on the Appearance of the Venereal Disease in Europe. Lisbon, 1774. Finally, still another work by Sanchez was published after his death, entitled Observations on Venereal Diseases. Paris, 1785.—Ed.]