Si tibi tam gratus, Baetice, cunnus erat?
(Why has your member been cut with a Samian potsherd, if the female organ, Baeticus, was so dear to you)?
[286] Scribonius Largus, De compos. medicam. edit. Bernhold, Strasburg 1786., p. 2., writes in his Introduction to the Callistus: Siquidem verum est, antiquos herbis ac radicibus eorum corporis vitia curasse: quia etiam tunc genus mortalium inter initia non facile se ferro committebat. Quod etiam nunc plerique faciunt, ne dicam omnes; et, nisi magna compulsi necessitate speque ipsius salutis, non patiunter sibi fieri, quae sane vix sunt toleranda. (If in fact it is true that the Ancients cured the diseases of their bodies by means of herbs and roots: for even then the race of mortals at the beginning did not readily entrust its cure to the knife. And this is what even now the most part do; and, unless constrained by a sore need and by the hope of actual recovery, do not suffer operations to be performed on them, which in very deed are hardly to be endured).
[287] Galen, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 233.
[288] Hippocrates, Coact. praenot., edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 343., τὰ ἑρπηστικὰ ὑπεράνω βουβῶνος πρὸς κενεῶνα καὶ ἥβην γινόμενα, σημαίνει κοιλίην πονηρευομένην. (Spreading eruptions that appear above the groin towards the flank and pubes point to an evil condition of stomach).
[289] Galen, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 3., edit. Kühn Vol. X. pp. 243 sqq.
[290] Hence Hensler is quite right in saying as he does (History of Venereal Disease Vol. I. p. 298.): “It is extraordinary that a precision should have been demanded on the part of the Ancients, which they could not possibly possess, such indeed as cannot be expected in any disease during its childhood. As to requiring them to have announced the cause of the evil with certainty and clearness, this is always only the result of time and reiterated experience.”
[291] Galen, De locis affect. bk. VI. ch. 5., edit. Kühn Vol. VIII. p. 422., φαινομένου δὲ σαφῶς, ἰσχυροτάτην ἔχειν τὴν δύναμιν ἐνίας τῶν οὐσιῶν, ὑπόλοιπον ἂν εἴη ζητεῖν, εἰ διαφθορά τις ἐν τοῖς ζώοις δύναται γενέσθαι τηλικαύτη τὸ μέγεθος, ὡς ἰῷ θηρίου παραπλησίαν ἔχειν ποιότητά τε καὶ δύναμιν. (But it being plainly evident that there are some creatures that have the power developed in the highest degree, it would be superfluous to enquire whether there can exist in animals a destructive force so great in amount as to possess a quality and power similar to poison in snakes). In fact he answers this question in the affirmative so far as regards semen and menstrual blood, appealing to the poisonous quality of the spittle of dogs in rabies.
[292] Heyne, De febribus epidemicis Romae falso in pestium censum relatis Progr., (On certain Epidemic Fevers at Rome incorrectly referred to the Category of Plagues,—a Graduation Exercise), Göttingen 1782., p. 4. (Works vol. III.), Hoc enim erat illud, quod antiquitatem omnino ab subtiliore naturae adeoque et morborum cognitione revocavit et retraxit, quod ea, quae ad interiorem eius notitiam spectabant, inprimisque quae ab solenni rerum cursu recedebant, ad religiones metumque deorum referebantur. (For indeed this was the cause which withdrew and kept back Antiquity generally from a more precise acquaintance with nature and so with diseases, viz. that everything which regarded the more intimate knowledge of it, and above all everything that was somewhat out of the common course of things, became a matter of religious scruples and superstition). Comp. C. F. H. Marx, Origines Contagii, (Original Causes of Contagion) Carlrühe and Baden 1824.
[293] As a rule they ascribed the origin of the contagion to σῆψις (putrefaction), and from their point of view septic, or putrefactive, diseases were pretty much the same as infectious (Galen, De febr. diff. I. 4.). Hence it would seem probable the ἕλκεα σηπεδόνα (putrefying ulcers) were at any rate partly looked at in the same light,—a circumstance of the highest importance as bearing on ulcers of the genitals, as in that case these latter are manifestly represented as being infectious. It is to be hoped that experts will give their decision as to this. At any rate as early as Galen’s time (De locis effect. bk. VI. ch. 5., edit. Kühn Vol. VIII. p. 422.) the action of contagion was regarded as analogous to that of the electric ray-fish (νάρκη θαλάττιος) and the magnet, and the conclusion was drawn: ταῦτά τε οὖν ἱκανὰ τεκμήρια τοῦ σμικρὰν οὐσίαν ἀλλοιώσεις μεγίστας ἐργάζεσθαι μόνῳ τῷ ψαῦσαι. (these then are sufficient evidences of the fact that a small creature may produce very great variations by contact alone).