[447] The origin and signification of this term are by no means well defined. See Galen (Exeges, etc.), Foës (Œcon. Hippocr.), and Coray (ad h. l.). It has been applied first, to certain varieties of morbus coxarius; secondly, to chronic buboes, superinduced by disease of the hip-joint; thirdly, to paralysis of the muscles about the genital organs; fourthly, aneurismal varix. (See Aretæus, Morb. Acut., ii., 8; and the note in Boerhaave’s edition.) I must own that I find some difficulty in deciding to which of these significations I should give the preference; I rather incline, however, to the first, from what our author says towards the end of this section, namely, that all men who ride much “are afflicted with rheums in the joints, sciatica and gout, and are inept at venery.”
[448] This opinion of our author was no doubt founded on the erroneous notion regarding the distribution of the veins which prevailed in his time, and which we find advocated in the tract “on the Nature of Man,” and elsewhere. (See Aristot., H. N., iii., 3.) Coray strives hard, in his annotations on this passage, to make out that the fact may be as stated by his ancient countryman, although the hypothesis by which he explained it be false. It is singular, however, that, after the lapse of more than two thousand years, Phrenology should have come to the assistance of Hippocrates in this case. I need scarcely remark that Gall and his followers hold that the cerebellum is the seat of the animal appetites, so that, if this be really the fact, a close sympathy between the back of the head and the genital organs may be very legitimately inferred. At all events, this coincidence between ancient observation and modern hypothesis must be admitted to be very remarkable.
[449] Aristotle, on the other hand, holds that the effects of equitation are aphrodisiac. (Probl. iv., 12.) Coray attempts to reconcile the discordant opinions of the physician and philosopher, by supposing that moderate exercises may excite the venereal appetite, whereas excessive extinguish them. Van Swieten agrees with Hippocrates that inordinate exercise in riding may induce impotence. (Comment. in Boerh. Aphor., § 1063.)
[450] It is a singular idea of our author that the wearing of breeches by confining the development of the genital organs impairs the sexual desires. It is curious, as remarked by Coray, that the same opinion is advocated by Hunter in his treatise on the Venereal Disease. Coray also quotes the following passage from Lalement: “Sæpe audivimus pistores et cæteros quorum partes pudendæ subligaculis non obteguntur sed liberius pendent crassos et bene nutritos habere testiculos.”—Comment. in Hippocrat. de Aer., etc.
[451] I trust I shall be excused in quoting entire Dr. Coray’s note on this section: “Trente mille Macédoniens (dit Pauw) ont conquis la Perse; quarante mille Mogols ont conquis les Indes; cinquante mille Tartares ont conquis la Chine, où l’on comptait alors plus de quarante millions d’habitans, qui abandonnèrent leurs souverains. On a vu de nos jours l’armée du grand Visir déserter presque complètement dans les environs de Varna; et jamais les Turcs n’eurent plus de bon sens qu’en cette occasion là; car leurs tyrans ne méritent pas qu’on verse une seule goutte de sang pour les maintenir sur le trône de ces contrées qu’ils ont dévastées en voleurs et en brigands. (Recherch. philosoph. sur les Grecs.)—Par ce dernier exemple on voit encore combien les causes politiques ou morales, et les causes naturelles, peuvent se modifier réciproquement. Les Russes, quoique soumis à un gouvernement despotique, ont cependant été la terreur des Turcs, à cause, sans doute de la différence du climat, de la discipline militaire, et des progrès dans la civilisation. Ces circonstances ont concouru à mitiger le despotisme Russe, et à le rendre si différent du despotisme brutal des Turcs. Il en est de même des autres peuples Septentrionaux de l’Europe. Quoique gouvernés par des loix qui ne sont point leur ouvrage, ils sont très belliqueux, et par la nature de leur climat, et par les lumières que les sciences et les arts ont répandues parmi eux.”
[452] Aristotle, in drawing the traits of the European and Asiatic character, would appear to have borrowed freely from our author. He says the inhabitants of cold countries and of Europe are full of spirit, but deficient in intellect and skill; they therefore remain in a state of freedom, but without regular government, and they are incapable of governing their neighbors. The inhabitants of Asia are described by him as being intellectual and skilled in the arts, but deficient in courage, and therefore they are in constant subjection and slavery. The Greeks, he maintains, held an intermediate place between these two, have both courage and intellect, and therefore enjoy freedom and good government. (Polit., iii., 7.)
[453] We have lately had a notable example of the warlike and independent spirit of mountaineers in the determined resistance which the Circassians have made to the colossal power of Russia. Great Britain, too, I may be permitted to remark, experienced disasters in contending with the mountaineers of Affganistan, such as she had never met with in the rich plains of India. And, by the way, the conqueror of Greece and of Persia was very nearly cut off by the same people. See Arrian, Exped. Alexandr., iv., 22, etc.
[454] Ἄναρθροι. The meaning of this term seems to be, persons whose joints are indistinct owing to fatness.
[455] Coray supposes, and apparently with justice, that our author in this passage tacitly refers to the inhabitants of Attica. It is worthy of remark that Thucydides ascribes the early civilization of the Athenians to the infertility of the soil. (Ἀττίκην λεπτόγεων, i., 2.) See Arnold’s Note, h., 1.; also the quotation from Aristotle at § 23; and Plato’s Timæus, tom. iii., p. 247; ed. Bekker. According to Coray (but perhaps he was partially disposed towards his adopted country), the characters of Provence and Marseilles are analogous to those of Attica and Athens, and the effects on the inhabitants similar. That Marseilles was at one time a flourishing seat of learning is undoubted; see Tacitus (Agricola) and Strabo (Geogr., iii.); but in literary celebrity it cannot surely aspire to be put on a level with the region which produced an Æschylus, a Thucydides, a Plato, and a Demosthenes! And it may be doubted whether even the Marseillais Hymn equals in masculine energy the war songs of Tyrtæus!
[456] Its title is, Specimen Historico-Medicum Inaugurale de Hippocratis Doctrina a Prognostice Oriunda. Lugduni Batavorum, 1832.