Note 160 — Second Part. (continued 2)

Astruc, De morbis venereis (Of Venereal diseases), p. 93., Quid igitur mirum varia, heterogenea, acria multorum virorum semina (et smegmata we may add) una confusa, cum acerrimo et virulento menstruo sanguine mixta, intra uterum aestuantem et olidum spurcissimarum mulierum coercita, mora, heterogeneitate, calore loci brevi computruisse ac prima morbi venerei semina constituisse, quae in alios, si qui forsan continentiores erant, contagione dimanavere?... Cum ergo in omnibus terrae locis, ubi lues venerea antiquitus endemia fuisse videtur, eundem aeris fervorem cum pari incolarum impudicitia coniunctum fuisse manifestum sit, haud inanis inde locus est colligendi morbum natura eundem, quo regiones longissime dissitae et inter quas nulla fuit commercii communio, simili modo infestabantur, a simili causarum earundem concursu, in quo tantum convenirent, generatum olim fuisse et generari etiamnum, si indigenae iisdem moribus vivant. (What is there surprising then in the fact that the various, heterogeneous, acrid seminal fluids of a number of different men (and unguents as well, we may add), all confounded together and mixed with the exceedingly acrid and virulent menstrual blood, confined within the steaming hot and fetid womb of the dirtiest of women, by long continuance in one place, by heterogeneity of components, by the heat of the locality, should very soon have grown putrid, and so laid the first seeds of Venereal disease,—which then passed on by contagion to other men, men that were very possibly more self-restrained?... So, inasmuch as in all parts of the world, wherever Venereal disease appears to have been endemic in Antiquity, it is plain the same heat of the atmosphere was united with a similar immorality on the part of the inhabitants, there is therefore sufficient ground for concluding that the disease, identical in its nature and one whereby regions far removed from one another and between which existed no commercial intercourse were attacked in a like way, was originally produced by a like conjunction of identical causes, a conjunction wherein these only agreed,—and is still so produced, supposing the inhabitants to still live after the same fashion). Wizmann (loco citato p. 32.) moreover is of opinion that Venereal disease under the conditions just named originates in Turkey to this day in its true form. A similar view is shared by Eagle and Judd (loco citato p. 306.).