[198] Hippocrates moreover, Aphorism. Vol. I. p. 724., says: τοῦ δὲ θέρεος ... καὶ σηπεδόνες αἰδοίων καὶ ἵδρωα. (And in the Summer ... occur also putrefactions of the privates and transpirations).
[199] Very possibly in many cases these affections of the extremities and genital organs owed their existence to anthrax or carbuncle; for not only does Hippocrates (p. 487.) say that ἄνθρακες πολλοὶ κατὰ θέρος καὶ ἄλλα ἃ σὴψ καλέεται (many cases of malignant pustule in Summer-time, as well as other complaints known under the general name of putrefaction) appeared under these meteorological conditions, but Galen likewise (Method. med. bk. XIV., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 980.) observed an anthrax epidemic in Asia, that itself began with numerous phlyctaenae (blisterous swellings) resembling millet seeds; these subsequently broke and gave rise to an ἕλκος ἐσχαρῶδες (scabby sore). Indeed the destruction of the skin took place even without the previous occurrence of phlyctaenae. πολλάκις δὲ οὐ μία φλύκταινα γεννᾶται κνησαμένων, ἀλλὰ πολλαὶ μικραὶ καθάπερ τινὲς κέγχροι καταπυκνοῦσαι τὸ μέρος ὧν ἐκρηγνυμένων ὁμοίως ἐσχαρῶδες ἕλκος γεννᾶται· κατὰ δὲ τοὺς ἐπιδημήσαντας ἄνθρακας ἐν Ἀσίᾳ καὶ χωρὶς φλυκταινῶν ἐνίοις εὐθέως ἀπεδάρη τὸ δέρμα. (And often not one phlyctaena is originated on patients scratching themselves, but many minute ones like millet seeds, closely covering the affected part; and when these have broken, a kind of scabby sore is produced. And in cases of anthrax (malignant pustule), which was at one time epidemic in Asia, in some patients even without there having been previous phlyctaenae, the skin was immediately destroyed).—Comp. Galen, De tumor. praeternat. Vol. VII. p. 719. Further, this information is in any case of importance for the more correct appreciation of the facts as to the Plague of Athens.
[200] Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, bk. II. ch. 49., Διεξῄει γὰρ διὰ παντὸς τοῦ σώματος ἄνωθεν ἀρξάμενον τὸ ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ πρώτον ἱδρυθὲν κακόν· καὶ εἴ τις ἐκ τῶν μεγίστων περιγένοιτο, τῶν γε ἀκρωτηρῖων ἀντίληψις αὐτὸν ἐπεσήμαινε· κατέσκηπτε γὰρ ἐς αἰδοῖα καὶ ἐς ἄκρας χεῖρας καὶ πόδας· καὶ πολλοὶ στερισκόμενοι τούτων διέφευγον· (for translation see text above). In this passage it is usual to read ἀντίληψις αὐτοῦ ἐπεσήμαινε, supplying κακοῦ from the previous clause to go with αὐτοῦ—(the seizure of the disease itself on the extremities manifested itself); but even supposing the double genitive with ἀντίληψις defensible, the construction is still very awkward, and is made still more so by the fact that in taking it this way we are compelled to translate ἐπεσήμαινε by “manifested itself” (mali vis, apprehendens extremas corporis partes se prodebat, manifestam faciebat,—the strength of the disease declared itself, made itself manifest, in seizing the extremities of the body,—is Wittenbach’s interpretation, Select. Hist. p. 367.), without by so doing obtaining any clear meaning of the sentence. On the other hand this is got directly we read with Reiske (Annotations p. 21. in his “Thucydides Reden, übersetzt von Reiske, nebst lateinischen Anmerkungen über dessen gesammtes Werk,”—Speeches in Thucydides translated into German by Reiske, together with Latin Notes on his “Histories” generally, Leipzig 1761. 8vo.) ἀντίληψις αὐτὸν ἐπεσήμαινε,—a seizure put its mark on him. But whether αὐτοῦ is read or αὐτὸν in any case it will be impossible to take the sentence as Kraus, p. 54., has done, when he says: “The pustulous suppurative eruption begins with the head and spreads little by little over the entire body even to the hands and feet. The fact that Thucydides had the eruption especially in his mind when he speaks of the gradual spread of the evil throughout the whole body is shown by the expressions chosen by him “The disease goes through the entire body and marks (ἐπεσήμαινε) hands and feet.” Now by what other of the symptoms mentioned would the affection of the hands and feet have been likely to make itself evident except by the eruption?” There must surely be few readers of Thucydides capable of putting so radically false an interpretation on the Historian’s words.
[201] Lucretius, De rerum natura bk. VI. 1205 sqq.
[202] Kraus, “Ueber das Alter der Menschenpocken,“—(On the Antiquity of Small-pox), Hanover 1825., pp. 54 sqq.
[203] Paulinus Fabius, Praelectiones Marciae, etc. 352 (but he defends his accuracy, as do Lambinus and Mercurialis),—Scuderi Pt. I. p. 126. To these we may add Petr. Victorius, Variar. lect. bk. XXXV. ch. 8.
[204] As in the Antonine Plague in the year 235 A. D.,—Galen, De usu part. III. ch. 5., De prob. pravisque alimentor. succ. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. VI. p. 749.; Cyprian, Works, Venice 1728. fol., p. 465.—Further note Hecquet, “Obs. sur la chute des os du pied dans une femme attaquée d’une fèvre maligne,” (Observations on the Falling in of the Bones of the Foot in the case of a Woman attacked by a Malignant Fever), in Memoires de Paris 1746. Histor. p. 40.—J. C. Brebis, De sphacelo totius fere faciei post superatam febrem malignam oborto, (On the Mortification of almost the whole Face supervening after Recovery from a Malignant Fever), in Act. Acad. N. C. Vol. IV. p. 206.—Percival (Samml. auserles. Abh. Vol. XV. p. 335.) observed during an epidemic of putrid fever at Manchester many patients with violent erysipelas on the face and head; and in the Typhus epidemics of 1806-1813, von Hildebrand (“Ueber den ansteckenden Typhus,”—On infectious Typhus), 2nd. edition, Vienna 1814., p. 200. and Horn (“Erfahrungen über die Heilung des ansteckenden Nerven-und Lazarethfiebers,”) (Experiences in the Cure of infections Nervous and Hospital Fevers), 2nd. edition, Berlin 1814., pp. 49, 71. saw violent inflammations of an erysipelas character set up in the nose, elbows, fingers and particularly the toes of their patients, which rapidly passed over into mortification.
[205] A further, question arises whether we should not read, instead of κατέσκηπτε γὰρ καὶ ἐς τὰ αἰδοῖα (for it attacked the genitals also), κατέσκηπτε γὰρ κακὸν ἐς τὰ αἰδοῖα (for mischief, evil, attacked the genitals).
[206] Joseph Franc, Prax. med. univ. praecept. Pt. I. Vol. III. sect. 2., Typhus, ch. 2. § 4. Note 11. Observation 108., says: “Notwithstanding the fact that in the General Hospital of Vienna Venereal patients were separated from others, yet it often happened at the time I was Physician in Chief there, that patients suffering from concealed Venereal disease or paying patients were admitted into the common Wards. Now if one or the other got typhus, or if such a patient was already lying there, or was brought there, the Venereal cases without exception took the typhus, and particularly so during the mercurial treatment.”
[207] Schönlein, “Vorlesungen”, (Prelections), Vol. II. p. 48., “The syphilitic exanthema either remains stationary when typhus arises, or disappears instantly and for ever—or the part affected with syphilis becomes gangrenous.” Neumann, “Specielle Pathologie und Therapie”, (Special Pathology and Therapeutics), Vol. II. p. 107., “Violent, severe typhoïdal fevers cure syphilis completely; its symptoms disappear with the commencement of the illness and never return.—Again after Petechial fever I have in most cases observed that the syphilis troubles that disappeared at its commencement never came back again.” Historical vouchers will be afforded in plenty by our later investigations.