Note 302 — THIRD SECTION. Relation of the Physician to Diseases consequent upon the Use or Misuse of the Genital Organs.

Galen, De usu partium bk. XIV. ch. 10. (IV. p. 187.), πηλίκην γὰρ ἔχει δύναμιν εἰς τὴν τῶν περιεχομένων ἔκκρισιν ὁ οἷον σπασμὸς τῶν μορίων τοῖς ἀφροδισίοις ἑπόμενος, ἔνεστί σοι μαθεῖν ἔκ τε τῶν ἐπιληψίων τῶν μεγάλων κἀκ τοῦ παθήματος, ὃ δὴ καλεῖται γονόῤῥοια· κατὰ μὲν γὰρ τὰς ἰσχυρὰς ἐπιληψίας, ὅτι τὸ πᾶν σῶμα σπᾶται σφοδρῶς, καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τὰ γεννητικὰ μόρια, διὰ τοῦτο ἐκκρίνεται τὸ σπέρμα· κατὰ δὲ τὰς γονοῤῥοίας αὐτῶν μόνων ἐστὶ τὸ πάθημα τῶν σπερματικῶν ἀγγείων· ὁποίαν οὖν τάσιν ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις νοσήμασι πάσχει, τοιαύτην ἴσχοντα ταῖς συνουσίαις ἐκκρίνει τὸ σπέρμα. (for how great a force in the way of stimulating the secretion of the surrounding glands is exerted by the species of spasm of the parts that follows on amatory action, you may learn from the seizures in the more serious forms of epilepsy, as also from the affection which is known as gonorrhœa. For in violent epileptic seizures, because the whole body is strongly convulsed, and with it the procreative parts, for this reason the semen is secreted; whereas in gonorrhœas the affection is one solely of the actual seminal vessels. Accordingly whatever tension these parts undergo in the diseases mentioned is the same in degree as they experience on secreting semen in acts of sexual intercourse). Comp. Note 2.