Volume 1

A treatise on syphilis : historical and practical / by E. Lancereaux ; translated by G. Whitley.

  • Étienne Lancereaux
Date:
1868-1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on syphilis : historical and practical / by E. Lancereaux ; translated by G. Whitley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/428 (page 10)
    coryza, aud difficulty of breathing ; a fetid smell issues from the nasal fossse, the voice is snuffling, there is headache (syphilitic ozseua), and warts are observed disseminated over the skin (Nidânasthâna, cap. ii.). Nodes and buboes are mentioned in other passages^ aud hints are even given for the treatment of them.* The history of the religious practices of India is another source of proofs of the antiquity of syphihs in that country. In fact, at the same time that the worship of Venus commenced in the centre of Asia (amongst the Assyrians [Pausanias]), that of Lingam, more in accordance with the egotism of human nature, began in India. But the myth of this worship^ as related by Sonnerat {Fovage aux Indes et a la Chiné), is fitted to explain, in an almost entirely satisfactory manner, the origin of syphilis. The portion of this myth which is of interest to us refers to the punishment of Civa, who had yielded to the allurements of pleasure ; his genital organs were destroyed by gangrene, which spread in the world by communication from women to men, and only ceased in consequence of the prayers of the peni- tent. According to F. C. Klein,t who relies upon the annals of Malabar, it is more than nine centuries since physicians first men- tioned syphilis, and the cure of the disease by mercury. In early times, however, affections of the genital organs amongst the Indians were certainly very rare, since the Greeks J class them amongst the nations who lived very long on account of their temperance and of their climate, which was little favourable to the rise of diseases. § 2. On syj)liilis amongst the Jews, the Greehs, and the Romans. The idea that syphilis might have existed from the earliest times having once been put forward, inquirers did not fail to examine even the sacred writings for traces of this disease, and the sagacity of the learned was exercised upon several passages of the Bible. The first of these passages relates to the plague of Baal Peor, which com- mitted ravages amongst the Jews, in consequence of their participa- • Transi, by Hessler, Vol. II. cap. xix, p. 124. See also H. Friedberg, Virchow's Archiv. fiir patholog. Anatomic und Physiol., Bd. xx. Heft 1, ch. 2, p. 254. 1864. •f- De morbi vcnerei curatione in India Orientait usiiata. Hafn. 1795. Tode, Journ. de médec, Vol. II. livr. 2. X Strabon, Géogr., p. 1027 et 1039. See Ctésias, Judic, 15. Lucien, Macrob. c. iv. Diod. Sic. XI. c. xl. Pline, Hist. nat. XVII. o. ii.