NUMBER II.
An Attempt to prove the Antiquity of the Venereal Disease, long before the Discovery of the West-Indies; in a Letter to Dr. James Douglass, M. D.
SIR,
THE Undertaking I am at present engaged in, is to prove that the Venereal Disease was known among us, much earlier than the Æra, which has been generally assign’d for its Rise by modern Authors; for it is believed it was not known, at least in Europe, till about the Year 1494. Notwithstanding which, I determine to make it evident, that it was frequent among us some Hundreds of Years before that Date. I could mention several Physicians and Surgeons of Eminence, who have been of the same Sentiments, particularly, the Learned Dr. Charles Patin, who has written a curious Dissertation to prove the Antiquity of this Disease, which is sufficient to excuse me from the Imputation of having started a Novelty, or being at the trouble of quoting antient Authorities before taken notice of, from the most ancient Writers of Medicine; as Hippocrates, Galen, Avicen, Celsus, &c. and even the Holy Scriptures. I shall therefore lay aside all those foreign Aids and Assistances, and trace out the Symptoms of the Disease, as they naturally arise, from the first Infection to the last destructive Period, and shew that, by searching into our own Antiquities, we may be furnished with Instances of the Frequency of the Distemper among us, in all its respective Stages, before ever our Modern Authors dream it had its Appearance in Europe,
I shall begin with the first Degree of this Disease, and prove from authentic Evidences, it was anciently call’d the Brenning or Burning; and that this Word has been successively continu’d for many Hundreds of Years, to signify the same Disease we now call a Clap; and that it was not discontinu’d till that Appellation first began to have its Rise. The most likely Method to accomplish my Design, will be first to examine those Records that relate to the Stews, which were by Authority allowed to be kept on the Bank-Side in Southwark, under the Jurisdiction of the Bp. of Winchester, and which were suppressed the 37th of Hen. VIII. For it is impossible but, if there were any such Distemper in being at that Time, it must be pretty common among those lewd Women who had a Licence for entertaining their Paramours, notwithstanding any Rules or Orders which might be establish’d to prevent its Increase: But if we shall find that there were Orders establish’d to prevent the Spreading of such a Disease, that Persons might be secure from any contagious Malady after their Entertainment at those Houses (which were anciently 18 in Number, but in the Reign of Hen. VII. reduced to 12) we may then securely depend upon it, that it was the Frequency of the Disease that put those who had the Authority, under a necessity of making such Rules and Orders. For the same Powers, who granted a Liberty for keeping open such lewd Houses, must find it their Interest to secure, as much as possible, all Persons from receiving any Injury there; lest the Frequency of such Misfortunes should deter others from frequenting them, and so the original Design of their Institution cease; from the entire sinking of the Revenues. Now I find that, as early as the Year 1162, divers Constitutions relating to the Lordship of Winchester, (being also confirmed by the King) were to be kept for ever, according to the old Customs that had been Time out of Mind. Among which these were some, viz. 1. No Stew-holder to take more for a Woman’s Chamber in the Week than 14 d. 2. Not to keep open his Doors upon Holy Days. 3. No single Woman to be kept against her Will, that would leave her Sin. 4. No single Woman to take Money to be with any Man, except she lie with him all Night till the Morning. 5. No Stew-holder to keep any Woman that hath the perilous Infirmity of Burning. These and many more Orders were to be strictly observed, or the Offenders to be severely punished. Now we are assured, there is no other Disease that can be communicated by Carnal-Conversation with Women, but that which is Venereal, by reason that only is contagious; and its evident the Burning was certainly so: For, had it been nothing else but some simple Ulceration, Heat, or Inflammation, there would have been no Contagion; and that affecting only the Woman, could not be communicated by any Venereal Congress, and so not infer a Necessity of her being comprehended under the restraining Article. These Orders likewise prove the Disease was much more ancient than the Date above-mentioned; because they were only a Renewal of such as had been before established Time out of Mind.
But to confirm this farther, I find that in the Custody of the Bp. of Winchester, whose Palace was situate on the Bank-side, near the Stews, was a Book written upon Vellum, the Title of which runs thus: Here begynne the Ordinances, Rules, and Customs, as well for the Salvation of Mannes Life, as for to aschew many Mischiefs and Inconvenients that daily be lik there for to fall out, to be rightfully kept, and due Execution of them to be done unto any Person within the same. One of the Articles begins thus: De his qui custodiunt Mulieres habentes Nephandam infirmitatem. It goes on, Item, That no Stew-holder keep noo Woman wythin his House, that hath any Sickness of BRENNING, but that she be put out upon the peyne of makeit a fine unto the Lord of a hundred Shillings. This is taken from the Original Manuscript, which was preserv’d in the Bishop’s Court, suppos’d to be written about the Year 1430. From these Orders we may observe the Frequency of the Distemper at that Time; which, with other Inconveniences, was dayly like there for to fall out: and the Greatness of the Penalty, as the Value of Money then was, that is laid on it, proves it was no trifling or insignificant thing.
But the bare Proof of there having been anciently such a Disease as was called the Burning, may be thought to be insufficient, unless we were perfectly assured what it was, and how it was in those Times described: I shall therefore do it from an unquestionable Authority, which is that of John Arden, Esq; who was one of the Surgeons to King Richard II. and likewise to King Henry IV. In a curious Manuscript of his upon Vellum, he defines it to be, a certain inward Heat and Excoriation of the Urethra; which Description gives us a perfect Idea of what we now call a Clap; for frequent Dissections of those who laboured under that Disease, have made it evident, that their Urethra is excoriated by the Virulency of the Matter they receive from the infected Woman; and this Excoriation or Ulceration is not confined to the Ostiola or Mouths of the Glandulæ Muscosæ as has been lately thought, but may equally alike attack any Part of the Urethra not beyond the reach of the impelled malignant Matter. The Heat before described, which these Persons are sensible of, as well now as formerly, is a Consequent of the excoriated Urethra; for the Salts contained in the Urine must necessarily prick and irritate the nervous Fibrillæ, and excite a Heat in those Parts of the Urethra which are divested of its natural Membrane; which Heat will always be observed to be more or less, as the Salts are diluted with a greater or less Quantity of Urine; a thing I have often observed in Persons who have laboured under this Infirmity in hot Weather, when the perspirable Matter being thrown off in greater Quantities, the Salts bear a greater Proportion to the Quantity of Urine, and thereby make its Discharge at that Time so much the more painful and troublesome.
Thus we see this very early and plain Description of this Disease among us, to be entirely conformable to the latest and most exact Anatomical Discoveries. Here is no Tone of the Testicles depraved, according to Trajanus Petronius; no Exulceration of the Parastatæ, according to Rondeletius; no Ulceration of the Seminal Vessels, according to Platerus; no Seat of the Disease in the Vesiculæ Seminales, or Prostatæ, according to Bartholin; nor in those Parts and the Testicles at the same Time, according to our Countryman Wharton and others, who have falsly fixed the Seat of this Disease, and whose Notions, in this respect, are now justly exploded; but a single and true Description of it, and its Situation, about 150 Years before any of those Gentlemen obliged the World with their learned Labours.