Note 293 — THIRD SECTION. Relation of the Physician to Diseases consequent upon the Use or Misuse of the Genital Organs.

As a rule they ascribed the origin of the contagion to σῆψις (putrefaction), and from their point of view septic, or putrefactive, diseases were pretty much the same as infectious (Galen, De febr. diff. I. 4.). Hence it would seem probable the ἕλκεα σηπεδόνα (putrefying ulcers) were at any rate partly looked at in the same light,—a circumstance of the highest importance as bearing on ulcers of the genitals, as in that case these latter are manifestly represented as being infectious. It is to be hoped that experts will give their decision as to this. At any rate as early as Galen’s time (De locis effect. bk. VI. ch. 5., edit. Kühn Vol. VIII. p. 422.) the action of contagion was regarded as analogous to that of the electric ray-fish (νάρκη θαλάττιος) and the magnet, and the conclusion was drawn: ταῦτά τε οὖν ἱκανὰ τεκμήρια τοῦ σμικρὰν οὐσίαν ἀλλοιώσεις μεγίστας ἐργάζεσθαι μόνῳ τῷ ψαῦσαι. (these then are sufficient evidences of the fact that a small creature may produce very great variations by contact alone).