[304] Galen, De causis morb. ch. 6. (VII. p. 22.), καὶ ὡς ἐνίοτε μὲν εἰλικρινὴς ἐπιῤῥεῖ τούτων ἕκαστος τῶν χυμῶν, ἐνίοτε δ’ἀλλήλοις ἐπιμίγνυνται· καὶ ὡς αἱ τῶν οἰδούντων—μορίων διαθέσεις ἐντεῦθεν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ποικίλλονται ... καὶ σατυριάσεις ἐκ τούτου τοῦ γένους εἰσὶ. (And so sometimes each of these humours is secreted pure, while at other times they are mixed one with the other; and so from this circumstance the conditions of the parts suffering swelling vary in the highest degree.... Now cases of satyriasis are of this kind). Comp. Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7.
[305] Paulus Aegineta, bk. III. ch. 56., ἡ σατυρίασις ἐστὶ παλμὸς τοῦ αἰδοίου φλεγμονώδει τινι διαθέσει τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων ἑπόμενος μετ’ἐντάσεως· καὶ εἰ μὴ παύσαιτο ὁ παλμός, κατασκήπτειν εἴωθεν εἰς πάρεσιν τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων ἢ σπασμόν, καὶ ἀπόλλυντας ὀξέως οἱ σπασθέντες· τελευτῶντες δὲ φυσῶνται γαστέρα καὶ ὑδροῦσι ψυχρόν. (Satyriasis is palpitation of the private part following on an inflammatory condition of the spermatic vessels and accompanied with tension. If the palpitation do not cease, it commonly passes into paresis of the spermatic vessels or spasm, and patients attacked by the spasm quickly succumb; and in their last moments they have the abdomen distended and suffer from cold sweats.)
[306] Actuarius, Method. med. bk. I ch. 22., Priapismus vero est permanens constansque colis extensio.—Corripit hic affectus cum calidus crassusque spiritus in colem decumbit, qui ubi non facile egredi permittitur, penem vi extendit. Hi exiguum vel nihil seminis eiaculantur, sentiunt tamen quod spiritus una excludatur et levari quidem aegri ita quadamtenus videntur: verum denuo eodem malo corripiuntur, donec intensionis causa fuerit sublata. Coles resolvitur, aut quod nervi illius aliqua intemperie debilitentur aut quod spiritus confluens deficiat vel meatus eius obstruantur dissecenturve. (Now priapism is a permanent and chronic state of erection of the member.—This complaint attacks a patient, when a hot and heavy spirit descends into the member, which not being suffered to readily escape, violently erects the penis. Such patients ejaculate little or no semen, yet feel that the spirit is voided along with it, and so far as there is any emission, appear to be relieved thereby; but they are again attacked afresh by the same evil, until the cause of the tension has been removed. Then the member is relaxed, either because its muscles are weakened by some morbid condition, or because the spirit converging to it fails or its passages are blocked and become dried up).
[307] Aretaeus, Morb. chron. sympt. bk. II. ch. 5., ἀπὸ σατυριήσεως ἐς γονοῤῥοίης ἀπόσκηψιν ἡ κατάστασις. (The established tendency after satyriasis is towards a determination of gonorrhœa). Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. ch. 18., Omnibus tamen in ultimo conductio nervorum fit, quam Graeci spasmon vocaverunt et voluntarius seminis iactus. (Yet in all cases eventually a certain action of the muscles takes place, which the Greeks call spasm, and a voluntary ejaculation of semen).
[308] Galen, Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. p. 970.), γίνεται δὲ οὐ πολλοῖς μὲν τὸ πάθος τοῦτο, νεανίαις γε μὲν μᾶλλον ἢ κατ’ἄλλην ἡλικίαν· (Now this complaint does not attack many, and young men are more liable than any other age). Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. ch. 18., Sed antecedentes ipsius passionis causae sunt epota medicamina—ἐντατικὰ—, item immodicus atque intemporalis usus veneris. Est autem communis passio viris atque feminis, quae solet accidere aetatibus mediis atque iuventuti. (But the antecedent causes of the actual complaint are the taking of drugs, viz. aphrodisiacs, as also immoderate and unseasonable indulgence in love. And the complaint is common both to men and women, and regularly attacks persons in middle life as well as the young).
[309] Galen, Method. med. bk. XIV. ch. 7. (X. pp. 969 sqq.). Comp. De Composit. medicam. secund. locos, bk. IX. ch. 9. (XIII. p. 318.). Caelius Aurelian, Acut. morb. bk. III. 18., Chron. morb. bk. II. 1. V. 9. Actuarius, Method. med. I. 15. Nonnus, Epitom. ch. 194. Priscian, bk. II. ch. 11.
[310] Caelius Aurelian bk. III. ch. 18., Prohibentes etiam hominum ingressum et magis iuvenum feminarum atque puerorum. Pulchritudo enim ingredientium admonitione quadam provocat aegrotantes; quippe cum etiam sani saepe talibus usi statim in veneream veniant voluptatem, provocati partium effecta tentigine. (Forbidding the entrance even of men, much more that of youths, women and boys. For the beauty of those entering excites the patients by calling up remembered images; for even healthy subjects frequently enjoying such sights straightway fall in lustful love, incited by a certain tension of the parts being produced). He also recommended shaving the hair of the pubis.
[311] Galen, De loc affect. VI. 6. (VIII. p. 439.), ἡ μὲν οὖν γονόῤῥοια σπέρματος ἀπόκρισίς ἐστιν ἀκούσιος, ἔξεστι δὲ καὶ ἀπροαίρετον ὀνομάζειν, ὥσπερ καὶ σαφέστερον, ἀπόκρισιν σπέρματος συνεχῶς γιγνομένην, χωρὶς τῆς κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἐνστάσεως ... ὥσπερ δὲ καὶ τ’ἄλλα πάντα τὰ ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν ἐκκενούμενα κατὰ διττὸν τρόπον τοῦτο πάσχει, ποτὲ μὲν ἐκ τῶν περιεχόντων αὐτὰ σωμάτων ἐκκρινόμενα, ποτὲ δὲ αὐτομάτως ἐκρέοντα δι’ ἀῤῥωστίαν τῶν αὐτῶν σωμάτων οὐ κατεχόμενα, οὕτως καὶ τὸ σπέρμα· (Now gonorrhœa is an involuntary discharge of semen, or we may call it unintentional, if we prefer, as being a clearer term, the discharge of semen taking place continuously, without erection in the member.... And just as other parts of our body when evacuated, suffer this in one of two ways, sometimes being discharged by the bodies that surround them, at others flowing out automatically, as failing to be retained through some weakness in the bodies themselves, so is it also with the semen).—Paulus Aegineta, bk. III. ch. 55., ἡ γονόῤῥοια σπέρματος ἐστὶν ἀκούσιος ἀπόκρισις σανεχῶς γινομένη χωρὶς τῆς κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἐνστάσεως, διὰ τὴν τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως ἀσθένειαν γινομένη. (Gonorrhœa is an involuntary discharge of seed going on persistently without erection in the member, being due to feebleness of the retentive power). Nonnus, Epitome ch. 193., says the same.
[312] Galen, loco citato p. 441., ὥσπερ γε καὶ τὴν τῆς γονοῤῥοίας, ἀνάλογον οὔρων ἐκκρίσεσιν ἀκουσίοις, ὅταν ἡ κατέχουσα δύναμις αὐτὴ παραλυθεῖσα τύχῃ. (Similarly too the discharge of gonorrhœa, analogous to the involuntary discharges of urine, whenever the retentive power itself has come to be paralysed). Actuarius, Method. med. bk. I. ch. 22., Causa autem eius est, seminalium vasorum fluxus facilitas, aut impotentia aut quod ob enatam intemperiem semen continere nequeant, aut quod humor quispiam mordax ibi abundans stimulet. (Now the cause of it is the facility of flow from the seminal vessels, either from impotence or because they are unable to retain the semen in consequence of a morbid condition that has arisen, or else because some acrid humour is there in over-abundance, stimulating the flow).
[313] Galen, De sanitate tuenda Bk. VI. ch. 14. (VI. p. 443.), Μοχθηροτάτη δὲ σώματός ἐστι καὶ ἡ τοίαδε· σπέρμα πολὺ καὶ δερμὸν ἔνιοι γεννῶσιν, ἐπείγει γὰρ αὐτοὺς εἰς ἀπόκρισιν, οὗ μετὰ τὴν ἔκκρισιν ἔκλυτοί τε γίγνονται τῷ στόματι τῆς κοιλίας, ... ἀσθενεῖς γίγνονται, καὶ ξηροὶ καὶ λεπτοὶ, καὶ ὠχροὶ, καὶ κοιλοφθαλμιῶντες οἱ οὕτω διακείμενοι· εἰ δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ταῦτα πάσχειν ἐπὶ ταῖς συνουσίαις ἀπέχοιντο μίξεως ἀφροδισίων δύσφοροι μὲν τὴν κεφαλὴν, δύσφοροι δὲ καὶ τῷ στομάχῳ, καὶ ἀσώδεις· οὐδὲν δὲ μέγα διὰ τῆς ἐγκρατείας ὠφελοῦνται· συμβαίνει γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐξονειρώττουσι παραπλησίας γίνεσθαι βλάβας, ἃς ἔπασχον ἐπὶ ταῖς συνουσίαις· ὡς δέ τις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἔφημοι, δακνώδους τε καὶ θερμοῦ πάνυ τοῦ σπέρματος αἰσθάνεσθαι κατὰ τὴν ἀπόκρισιν, οὐ μόνον ἑαυτὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας αἷς ἂν ὁμιλήσῃ· (However the most troublesome condition of body is the following: some patients produce copious and hot semen, and this provokes them to ejaculation, then after its ejaculation, they grow relaxed at the neck of the belly, ... and become weak, and dried up, and thin, and pale, and hollow-eyed,—the patients that find themselves so affected. And if after suffering in these ways, they then indulge in the intercourse of sexual love, they are afflicted in head and in stomach, and with nausea. Nor on the other hand do they get any great benefit from continence; for they come, by having pollutions in dreams, to undergo similar inconveniences to those they incurred in sexual intercourse. And as one of them said to me, he experienced a biting and exceedingly hot sensation from the semen in its ejaculation,—and not himself only, but also such women as he had intercourse with).