Note 311 — THIRD SECTION. Relation of the Physician to Diseases consequent upon the Use or Misuse of the Genital Organs.

Galen, De loc affect. VI. 6. (VIII. p. 439.), ἡ μὲν οὖν γονόῤῥοια σπέρματος ἀπόκρισίς ἐστιν ἀκούσιος, ἔξεστι δὲ καὶ ἀπροαίρετον ὀνομάζειν, ὥσπερ καὶ σαφέστερον, ἀπόκρισιν σπέρματος συνεχῶς γιγνομένην, χωρὶς τῆς κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἐνστάσεως ... ὥσπερ δὲ καὶ τ’ἄλλα πάντα τὰ ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν ἐκκενούμενα κατὰ διττὸν τρόπον τοῦτο πάσχει, ποτὲ μὲν ἐκ τῶν περιεχόντων αὐτὰ σωμάτων ἐκκρινόμενα, ποτὲ δὲ αὐτομάτως ἐκρέοντα δι’ ἀῤῥωστίαν τῶν αὐτῶν σωμάτων οὐ κατεχόμενα, οὕτως καὶ τὸ σπέρμα· (Now gonorrhœa is an involuntary discharge of semen, or we may call it unintentional, if we prefer, as being a clearer term, the discharge of semen taking place continuously, without erection in the member.... And just as other parts of our body when evacuated, suffer this in one of two ways, sometimes being discharged by the bodies that surround them, at others flowing out automatically, as failing to be retained through some weakness in the bodies themselves, so is it also with the semen).—Paulus Aegineta, bk. III. ch. 55., ἡ γονόῤῥοια σπέρματος ἐστὶν ἀκούσιος ἀπόκρισις σανεχῶς γινομένη χωρὶς τῆς κατὰ τὸ αἰδοῖον ἐνστάσεως, διὰ τὴν τῆς καθεκτικῆς δυνάμεως ἀσθένειαν γινομένη. (Gonorrhœa is an involuntary discharge of seed going on persistently without erection in the member, being due to feebleness of the retentive power). Nonnus, Epitome ch. 193., says the same.