[294] These were treated by the female physicians (αἱ ἰατρίναι), Galen, De loc. effect. VI. 5., Vol. VIII. p. 414. and the midwives, who had to examine the female genitals in cases of disease affecting them, and report the results to the Physicians. Σκέψασθαι κέλευσον τὴν μαῖαν ἁψαμένην τοῦ τῆς μήτρας αὐχένος, (bid the midwife examine by touch the neck of the womb), Galen says, loco citato p. 433.
[295] Galen, De morborum causis, ch. 9., edit. Kühn Vol. VII. p. 39.
[296] Galen, Methodus medendi bk. II. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 84.
[297] Hensler, History of Venereal Disease Vol. I. p. 191. He says explicitly: “However I do not propose to follow up to its original cause the history either of gonorrhœa, valuable as the results might be, nor that of any other complaint liable to occur. It is sufficient for my purpose to elucidate my Authorities for Venereal disease at its first appearance from the circumstances of their epoch, though no doubt incidentally the eye must sometimes take a wider sweep and look further and higher.”
[298] Galen, De loc. affect, bk. VI. 6. (VIII. p. 439.), τὸ δὲ τῆς γονοῤῥοίας ὄνομα προφανῶς ἐστι σύνθετον ἐκ τῆς γονῆς καὶ τοῦ ῥεῖν· ὀνομάζεται γὰρ τὸ σπέρμα καὶ γονός. (Now the name of gonorrhœa is evidently compounded from the words γονὴ and ῥεῖν. For the semen (σπέρμα) is also known as γονός.)
[299] Galen, loco cit. p. 441., γονόῤῥοια μὲν οὖν τῶν σπερματικῶν ὀργάνων ἐστὶ πάθος, οὐ τῶν αἰδοίων, οἷς ὁδῷ χρῆται πρὸς ἔκρουν ἡ γονή· (Gonorrhœa accordingly is an affection of the seminal organs, not of the privates, which the seed merely uses as its passage for excretion).—De usu partium bk. XIV. ch. 10. (IV. p. 188.), κατὰ δὲ τὰς γονοῤῥοίας αὐτῶν μόνων ἐστὶ τὸ πάθημα τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων. (But in gonorrhœas the affection is one solely of the seminal vessels).
[300] Galen, De symptom. caus. bk. II. ch. 2. (VII. p. 150.), ὥσπέρ γε καὶ τῆς γονοῤῥοίας ἡ ἑτέρα διαφορά· εἰ μὲν γὰρ μετὰ ἐντάσεως τοῦ αἰδοίου γένοιτο, οἷον σπασμός ἐστιν, εἰ δὲ χωρὶς ταύτης, ἀῤῥωστία τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως. (As is the case too with the second variety of gonorrhœa. For if it be combined with tension of the private, it is a sort of spasm, but if without this, a weakness of retentive force).—Bk. III. ch. 11. (p. 267.), καὶ μὴν καὶ αἱ γονόῤῥοιαι, χωρὶς μὲν τοῦ συνεντείνεσθαι τὸ αἰδοῖον, ἀρρωστία τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως τῆς ἐν τοῖς σπερματικοῖς ἀγγείοις· ἐντεινομένου δέ πως, οἷον σπασμῷ τινι παραπλήσιον πασχόντων ἐπιτελοῦνται. (Moreover also gonorrhœas, if not combined with a state of tension of the private, are from a weakness of retentive power in the seminal vessels; but if there is any tension, they are marked by a sort of spasm resembling that of spasmodic patients).
[301] Galen, De tumoribus praeternat., ch. 14. (VII. p. 728.), καθάπερ καὶ τὰς κατὰ φύσιν ἐντάσεις τῶν αἰδοίων μὴ καθισταμένας τινὲς ὀνομάζουσι σατυριασμὸν, τινὲς δὲ πριαπισμόν. (Precisely as tensions of the privates not originating in a natural way are called by some Satyriasis, by others Priapism). The latter, as we gather from Galen, Method. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 968.), by the younger physicians.
[302] Galen, De usu partium bk. XIV. ch. 10. (IV. p. 187.), πηλίκην γὰρ ἔχει δύναμιν εἰς τὴν τῶν περιεχομένων ἔκκρισιν ὁ οἷον σπασμὸς τῶν μορίων τοῖς ἀφροδισίοις ἑπόμενος, ἔνεστί σοι μαθεῖν ἔκ τε τῶν ἐπιληψίων τῶν μεγάλων κἀκ τοῦ παθήματος, ὃ δὴ καλεῖται γονόῤῥοια· κατὰ μὲν γὰρ τὰς ἰσχυρὰς ἐπιληψίας, ὅτι τὸ πᾶν σῶμα σπᾶται σφοδρῶς, καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τὰ γεννητικὰ μόρια, διὰ τοῦτο ἐκκρίνεται τὸ σπέρμα· κατὰ δὲ τὰς γονοῤῥοίας αὐτῶν μόνων ἐστὶ τὸ πάθημα τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων· ὁποίαν οὖν τάσιν ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις νοσήμασι πάσχει, τοιαύτην ἴσχοντα ταῖς συνουσίαις ἐκκρίνει τὸ σπέρμα. (for how great a force in the way of stimulating the secretion of the surrounding glands is exerted by the species of spasm of the parts that follows on amatory action, you may learn from the seizures in the more serious forms of epilepsy, as also from the affection which is known as gonorrhœa. For in violent epileptic seizures, because the whole body is strongly convulsed, and with it the procreative parts, for this reason the semen is secreted; whereas in gonorrhœas the affection is one solely of the actual seminal vessels. Accordingly whatever tension these parts undergo in the diseases mentioned is the same in degree as they experience on secreting semen in acts of sexual intercourse). Comp. Note 2.
[303] Galen, Method. medendi bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 967.), αὐτίκα γέ τοι πάθος ἐστὶ τὸ καλούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν νεωτέρων πριαπισμὸς, ἐπειδὴ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἀκουσίως ἐξαίρεται, τῶν οὕτω διακειμένων· ὃ θεασάμενός τις τῶν ἐν τοῖσδε τοῖς ὑπομνήμασι προγεγυμνασμένων ἑτοίμως γνωριεῖ τοῦ τῶν ἐμφυσημάτων ὑπάρχον γένους· (The immediate complaint is what is called by the younger school Priapism, when the private part is erected involuntarily in patients so afflicted; and if any of my readers who have been prepared beforehand in the present memoranda see this, he will readily recognize the phænomenon to belong to the class of the emphysemata, or inflations). De sympt. caus. bk. III. ch. 11. (VII. p. 266).