Note 314 — THIRD SECTION. Relation of the Physician to Diseases consequent upon the Use or Misuse of the Genital Organs.

Aretaeus, De morbor. chronic. symptom. bk. II. ch. 5., Ἀνώλεθρον μὲν ἡ γονόῤῥοια, ἀτερπὲς δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς μέσφι ἀκοῆς· ἣν γὰρ ἀκρασίη καὶ πάρεσις τὰ ὑγρὰ ἴσχῃ καὶ γόνιμα μέρεα, ὅκως διὰ ψυχρῶν ῥέει ἡ θορὴ, οὐδὲ ἐπισχεῖν ἐστὶ αὐτὴν οὐδὲ ἐν ὕπνοισι· ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἤν τε εὕδῃ, ἤν τε ἐγρηγορέῃ, ἀνεπίσχετος ἡ φορὴ, ἀναίσθητος δὲ ἡ ῥοὴ τοῦ γόνου γίγνεται· νοσέουσι δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες τήνδε τὴν νοῦσον, ἀλλ’ἐπὶ κνησμοῖσι τῶν μορίων καὶ ἡδονῇ προχέεται τῇσι ἡ θορή· ἀτὰρ καὶ πρὸς ἄνδρας ὁμιλίῃ ἀναισχύντῳ· ἄνδρες δὲ οὐδ’ὅλως ὀδάξονται· τὸ δὲ ῥέον ὑγρὸν λεπτὸν, ψυχρὸν, ἄχρουν, ἄγονον· πῶς γὰρ ζωογόνον ἐκπέμψαι σπέρμα ψυχρὴ οὖσα ἡ φύσις· ἢν δὲ καὶ νέοι πάσχωσι, γηραλέους χρὴ γενέσθαι πάντας τὴν ἕξιν, νωθώδεας, ἐκλύτους, ἀψύχους, ὀκνέοντας, κωφούς, ἀσθενέας, ῥικνούς, ἀπρήκτους, ἐπώχρους, λευκοὺς, γυναικώδεας, ἀποσίτους, ψυχροὺς, μελέων βάρεα, καὶ νάρκας σκελέων, ἀκρατέας, καὶ ἐς πάντα παρέτους· ἥδε ἡ νοῦσος ὁδὸς ἐς παράλυσιν πολλοῖσι γίγνεται· πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν τῶν νεύρων ἥδε ἡ δύναμις πάθοι τῆς ἐς ζωῆς γένεσιν φύσιος ἀπεψυγμένης. (Gonorrhœa is not indeed a dangerous thing, but it is a disagreeable one, and one that is in the highest degree unseemly in repute. For if incontinence and paresis attack the soft procreative parts, the semen flows all the same even though the organs are cold, nor is it possible to stop it even in sleep; for whether a man sleep, or wake, the running is continual, and the flow of the seed goes on unconsciously. And women also are subject to this complaint; but in their case the discharge of the semen is accompanied with itchings and with pleasurable feeling, as well as with shameless intercourse with men, whereas men are not in any way excited. And the moisture that is discharged is thin, cold, colourless, unfruitful; for how should its nature, that is cold, send forth fertile semen? And if young men suffer from it, they are bound to grow old in constitution and condition, sluggish, relaxed, lifeless, hesitating, dull of hearing, weak, shrunken, ineffectual, pallid, white, womanish, without appetite, chilly, heavy of limb, and stiff of leg and palsied in every part. This complaint is the avenue to paralysis for many; for how should this power of the nerves not suffer when the natural parts pertaining to the generation of life are chilled).