Note 348 — THIRD SECTION. Relation of the Physician to Diseases consequent upon the Use or Misuse of the Genital Organs.

Galen, Method. med. bk. V. ch. 4. (X. p. 325.), καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο ἐπ’ αἰδοίων καὶ ἕδρας εἰς τὴν τοιαύτην ἀνάγκην ἀφικνούμεθα πολλάκις, ὅτι ῥᾳδίως σήπεται τὰ μόρια διά τε τὴν σύμφυτον ὑγρότητα καὶ ὅτι περιττωμάτων εἰσὶν ὀχετοί. (And in this respect with regard to the privates and fundament we constantly come back to the same conditions of causation, viz. that these parts are readily affected by putrefaction, as well owing to their natural moistness as because they are channels for excretions). Commentar. in Hippocrat. De humor. (XVI. p. 414.), ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ φύσις τῶν τόπων οὐ μικρὸν πρὸς τὸ δέχεσθαι σηπεδόνας ποιεῖ· καὶ γὰρ τὸ στόμα καὶ τὰ αἰδοῖα πολλὴν ὑγρότητα τῇ φύσει κέκτηται· καὶ προσέτι τοὺς ἀδένας ἔχουσιν ἐγγὺς, ἄπερ πάντα τὰ περιττὰ εἰσδέχεσθαι πεφύκασιν. (Moreover the nature of the localities has no small influence on their liability to putrefactive changes. For the mouth and the private parts possess much moisture of their very nature; and besides this they have the glands close by, all which circumstances tend naturally to make them the receptacles of excessive moisture). De usu partium bk. XI. ch. 14. (III. p. 910.), ἤδε δὲ καὶ περὶ τὴν τῶν αἰδοίων φύσιν αἱ τρίχες ἅμα μὲν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐγένοντο, θερμὰ γὰρ καὶ ὑγρὰ τὰ χωρία. (Now this quality and the fact of the privates being naturally surrounded with hair would seem to be necessary consequences, because the localities are hot and damp).—Cassius, Problem. 2., Cur supremae corporis sedes ad nomas sunt opportunae, similiter et concavae? An quia noma putrefactio est quaedam et sensus interitus atque extinctio. Supremae autem partes ob alimenti penuriam calore facile destituuntur, ita ut hac de causa census ablationem incurrant. Concavae vero ob humidae in ipsis materiae affluentem copiam, cuius occasione putredine corripiunter. (Why are the extreme parts of the body liable to nomae (eating ulcers), and likewise the concave parts? It is because a noma is a form of putrefaction and a perishing and extinction of sensation? Now the extreme parts owing to the scantiness of the nourishment they get are easily robbed of heat, so that for this reason they incur loss of sensation. On the other hand the concave parts owing to the excess of moist matter that collects in them, which is the occasion of their being attacked by putrefaction). Comp. what was said above under the head of “Climate”.