[175] Von Roeser, loco citato p. 69. Sonnerat, “Reise nach Ostindien”, (Journey to the East Indies), I. 94, 99. Schnurrer, Geogr. Nosologie p. 409. Note, says: “In Hindostan in particular experience has shown that a badly treated syphilis changes into leprosy.” That this is not a thing of such extreme rarity in Europe either, we shall prove more fully in another place. Meantime compare what Hensler, “Vom Abendländischen Aussatze”, (On Oriental Leprosy), pp. 228 sqq., says on the subject.
[176] Galen, Ad Glaucon. de meth. med. II., edit. Kühn Vol. XI. p. 142., says: κατὰ γοῦν τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν ἐλεφαντιῶσι πάμπολλοι διά τε τὴν δίαιταν καὶ τὴν θερμότητα τοῦ χωρίου·—ἅτε δὲ θερμοῦ τοῦ περιέχοντος ὄντος καὶ ἠ ῥοπὴ τῆς φορᾶς αὐτῶν πρὸς τὸ θέρμα γίνεται· (At any rate in the neighbourhood of Alexandria very many persons suffer from elephantiasis as well through their mode of life as owing to the heat of the locality;—for indeed as a result of the excessive heat of the climate, the tendency of their constitution is also towards heat). In Germany and Mysia he asserts the disease is seldom observed, and in Scythia almost never.
[177] Phlyctaenae (blisters) in erysipelas of the uterus are mentioned by Hippocrates, De ant. mulierum, edit. Kühn II. p. 541. Galen, edit. Kühn Vol. XVII. A. p. 358., ἴσθι γὰρ ὅτι τὰ ἐξανθήματα ἐν ταῖς τῆς μήτρας διαθέσεσιν εἰς τὸ δέρμα ἐκραγέντα σημαίνουσιν ὅτι ἡ φλεγμονὴ ἢ ἐρυσίπελας ἐκ τοῦ ἀποζέοντος καὶ λεπτοῦ αἵματος ἐν ταῖς μήτραις ἐγγίνεται, ὡς ἐν τῷ περὶ γυναικείης φύσεως γέγραπται. (Be assured that those eruptions that break out on the skin in certain morbid conditions of the womb signify that the inflammation or erysipelas proceeds from the deficiency and poorness of the blood in the womb, as is stated in my Work, On the Female Constitution).
[178] Aristotle, Problem IV. 18.
[179] Aëtius, Tetrab, IV. serm. 1. ch. 122., Novimus quosdam audaciores qui sibi ipsis testes ferro resecarunt; castratis enim non in peius malum ipsum procedet. Neque enim temere reperias, inquit Archigenes, ullum aliquem castratum elephantiasi laborantem, neque item facile mulierem. Quare etiam quidam ex confidentioribus medicis manum admoverunt, et quotquot sane ex eis ex sectione periculum evaserunt, per consequentis curationis usum perfecte ab hac maligna affectione liberati sunt. (We know of some bolder spirits who have amputated their own testicles with the knife; for after castration the actual evil will not then proceed to any worse length. For, says Archigenes, you will not readily find any single case of a castrated man suffering from elephantiasis, nor will you easily discover a woman at all affected by this disease. Wherefore, in fact, some of the more daring practitioners have operated, and there is no doubt that such of their patients as escaped the dangerous effects of the operation, have been through the employment of subsequent precautions completely freed from this malignant complaint). Comp. Hensler, “Vom Aussatz”, (On Leprosy), p. 401. With regard to the immunity of women, an assertion likewise made in connection with mentagra (p. 288), von Roeser writes (loco citato p. 67.) referring to Venereal disease: “Above all it is now the case in Greece and Turkey that the practising physician,—and I have been assured of the fact by many persons,—exceedingly seldom meets with syphilitic female patients in his practice; that yet notwithstanding this none of the sequelæ and different forms of subsequent mischief that are usually found resulting from the disease when every kind of medical aid is neglected, are seen in patients of that sex.”—P. 71., “Only poison would seem, as a result of the secretive process exerted by the affected parts of the skin and the mucous membrane, which is much more powerful in women than in men, to be more readily eliminated from the body than is the case with men, so much so indeed that it is an almost unheard of thing in Egypt to find a female patient under medical treatment.”—still this does not justify the conclusion that women never suffered from Venereal disease, as even von Roeser himself admits. Again Larrey, loco citato p. 253., actually found himself constrained in view of the wide dissemination of the disease among the French soldiers, to establish a special hospital for infected women, in order to check the spread of the complaint.
[180] Comp. Foot, “Abh. über die Lustseuche” (Treatise on Venereal Disease), transl. from the English by H. Ch. Reich, Vol. I. p. 62.
[181] Surgeon in Chief of the Esbekieh Hospital at Cairo.
[182] The passage of Aretaeus (Morb. chron. bk. II. ch. 13. edit. Kühn p. 180.) can hardly be cited as evidence on the other side in this case, as the question there discussed is elephantiasis, not the leprosy of the Jews at all. Any how we read there: τρίχες ἐν μὲν τῷ παντὶ προτεθνήσκουσι, χερσὶ μηροῖσι κνήμῃσι, αὖθις ἥβῃ, γενείοισι ἀραιαὶ, ψεδναὶ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ κόμαι· τὸ δὲ μᾶλλον πρόωροι, πολιοὶ καὶ φαλάκρωσις ἀθρόη· οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν δὲ ἥβη καὶ ἐπιμίμνοιεν παυραὶ τρίχες, ἀπρεπέστεραι τῶν ἀποιχομένων. (Hair dies first in every part, on hands, thighs, shins; again on pubes and cheeks it becomes thin, and scanty also on the head. The locks are prematurely white, and baldness becomes general; nor is it long before pubes and cheeks are bare, and if a few scanty hairs should remain, they are uncomely as compared with those that have disappeared). Nor would it be any fairer to cite the fact that Albinos are covered over the whole body with a fine, white, woolly hair.
[183] Already J. D. Michaelis, “Fragen an eine Gesellschaft gelehrter Männer, die auf Befehl Ihro Majestät des Königs von Dänemark nach Arabien reisen,” (Questions addressed to a Society of Learned Men, travelling at the Command of HM. the King of Denmark to Arabia), Frankfurt-on-the-Main 1762., p. 23., says in the 11th. question on Leprosy under head No. 8.: “Does it possess a natural diagnostic mark in this, if it breaks out everywhere at once, and covers the whole body? From Leviticus XIII. 12-13. we might seem to be almost justified in concluding this to be so. But I am in doubt how in that case this passage is to be interpreted in accordance with the history of the disease.” Comp. p. 335. Note 1.
[184] Philosoph. Transactions Vol. XXXI. Foot, Treatise on Venereal Disease, Vol. I. pp. 25 sqq.