Part 15

Having, I hope, sufficiently made it appear, the _Burning_ was a Disease very early among us, and given the Description of it, I shall proceed to say something of the ancient Method that was made use of to cure it. We are not to expect the Measures our Predecessors, in those early Times, made use of, should be calculated for the removing any Malignity in the Mass of Blood, or other Juices, according to the Practice in Venereal Cases at this Time; because they looked upon the Disease to be entirely local, and the Whole of the Cure to depend upon the Removal of the Symptoms: Hence it was they recommended such Remedies as were accommodated to the taking off the inward Heat of the Part, and cure the Excoriations or Ulcerations of the _Urethra_. The Process for the accomplishing of this, I shall set down from the before-mentioned _John Arden_, who wrote about the Year 1380, His Words are as follow: _Contra Incendium. Item contra Incendium Virgæ Virilis interius ex calore & excoriatione, fiat talis Syringa (i. e. _Injectio_) _lenitiva. Accipe Lac mulieris masculum nutrientis, & parum zucarium, Oleum violæ & ptisanæ, quibus commixtis per Syringam infundator, & si prædictis admiscueris lac Amigdalarum melior erit medicina._ There is no doubt but this Remedy, being used to our Patients at this Time, would infallibly take off the inward Heat of the Part, and cure the Excoriations or Ulcerations of the _Urethra_, by which means what issued from thence would be entirely stopt: and this was all they expected from their Medicines, forasmuch as they were entirely unacquainted with the Nature of the Distemper; and did not in the least imagine, but if the Symptoms that first attack’d the Part were removed, the Patient was entirely cured.

I shall now, as a farther Confirmation of what I have advanced, proceed to prove, that by this _Brenning_ or _Burning_ is meant the _Venereal Disease_, by demonstrating that succeeding Historians, Physical and Chirurgical Writers, and others, have all along with us in _England_ used the very same Word to signify the Venereal Malady. In an old Manuscript, I have, written about the Year 1390. is a Receipt for _Brenning of the Pyntyl, yat Men clepe ye Apegalle; Galle_ being an old English Word for a running Sore. They who know the _Etymology_ of the Word _Apron_, cannot be ignorant of this. And in another Manuscript, written about 50 Years after, is a Receipt for _Burning_ in that Part by a Woman. _Simon Fish_, a zealous Promoter of the _Reformation_ in the Reign of _Hen._ VIII. in his Supplication of Beggars, presented to the King, in 1530, says as follows, _These be they_ (speaking of the _Romish Priests_) _that corrupt the whole Generation of Mankind in your Realm, that catch the Pockes of one Woman and bear them to another; that be_ Burnt _with one Woman and bear it to another; that catch the Lepry of one Woman and bare it unto another_. But to make this Matter still more evident, I am to observe, that _Andrew Boord, M. D._ and Romish Priest, in the same Reign, in a Book he wrote, entitl’d _The Breviary of Health_, printed in 1546, speaks very particularly of this sort of _Burning_; one of his Chapters beginneth thus, _The 19th Chapiter doth shew of_ BURNING _of an Harlot_; where his Notion of communicating the _Burning_ is very particular. He adds, that if a Man be _Burnt_ with an _Harlot_, and do meddle with another Woman within a Day, he shall _Burn_ her; and as an immediate Remedy against the _Burning_, he recommends the washing the _Pudenda_ 2 or 3 times with White Wine, or else with Sack and Water; but if the Matter have continued long, to go to an expert Surgeon for Help. In his 82d _Chapter_, he speaks of _two_ sorts of _Burning_, the _One_ by _Fire_, and the _Other_ by a _Woman_ thro’ carnal Copulation, and refers the Person that is _Burnt_ of a _Harlot_ to another Chapter of his for Advice, what to do, _yf he get a Dorser or two_, so called from its Protuberancy or bunching out: For I find about that Time the Word _Bubo_ was mostly made use of, to signify that sort of Swelling which usually happens in pestilential Diseases.

From hence it appears, the _Burning_, by its Consequents, was _Venereal_; since every Day’s Experience makes it evident, that the ill Treatment of the first Symptoms of the Disease, either by astringent Medicines, or the removing them by cooling and healing the excoriated Parts, will generally be attended with such Swellings in the Groin, which we rarely observe to happen from any other Cause whatsoever.

I shall give a few more Instances of this Disease being call’d the _Burning_, and conclude. In a Manuscript I have of the Vocation of _John Bale_ to the Bishoprick of _Ossory_ in _Ireland_, written by himself, he speaks of Dr. _Hugh Weston_ (who was Dean of _Windsor_ in 1556. but deprived by Cardinal _Pole_ for Adultery) as follows; “At this Day is lecherous _Weston_, who is more practised in the Art of _Brech-Burning_ than all the _Whores_ of the _Stews_. And again, speaking of the same Person, he says, “He not long ago _brent_ a _Beggar_ in St. _Botolph_’s Parish. The same Author says of him elsewhere, “He had ben _sore Bitten_ with a _Winchester Goose_, and was not yet healed thereof; which was a common Phrase for the Pox at that Time, because the _Stews_ were under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of _Winchester_. _Mich. Wood_, in his _Epistle_ before _Stephen Gardiner_’s Oration _de vera Obedientia_, printed at _Rhoan_, 1553. gives another Evidence of the _Burning_. And _William Bullein_, a Physician in the Reign of Queen _Eliz._ in a Book he publish’d, call’d _The Bulwark of Defence, &c._ printed in 1562. bringing in _Sickness_ demanding of _Health_ what he should do with a Disease call’d the _French Pockes_, _Health_ answers, “_He would not that any should fishe for this Disease, or to be bold when he is bitten to thynke thereby to be helped, but rather to eschewe the Cause of thys Infirmity, and filthy rotten Burning of Harlots._

_London_, Feb. 4. WILLIAM BECKETT, 1717–18.

NUMBER III.

_A Second Letter on the same Subject to_ WILLIAM WAGSTAFFE, M. D.

_SIR_,

Before I engage farther, in proving that the _Venereal Disease_, when it came to be confirmed, was frequently known among us some hundreds of Years before the Siege of _Naples_: I shall endeavour to refute the Opinion of those Persons, who believe it to have had its Rise there, if any such shall remain. True indeed it is, that there have not been wanting several modern Authors, who have asserted it; but I determine to make it appear to be an Error as inconsiderately, and hastily received, as started by some Chimerical Author; who, because several Writers about that time, observing the Disease to begin in the _Pudenda_, separated it from another, with which it was before confounded, must likewise take upon him to assert its being a _new_ Distemper, and to assign a certain Time and Place for its Rise. Now one might with all the Reason in the World expect, that if the Disease had its Original there, it must have been so certainly and infallibly known, that there could have been no doubtful or uncertain Opinions about it, but that the Physicians, who resided _in_ or _near_ the Place, and those more especially, who interested themselves so far as to write of it, must have, all of them to a Man, agreed upon the Certainty of a thing, the Knowledge of the Truth of which was so easily attainable. But on the contrary, _Nicholas Leonicenus_, who was the first _Italian_ Physician, that wrote of this Disease, and who lived at the very time, when _Naples_ was besieged, is so far from acknowledging it to have had its Rise there, from the _French_ Soldiers Conversation with the _Italian_ Women, and so little did he know of its true Cause, that he does not allow it to be the Consequent of impure Embraces. About this time it was likewise, that Pope _Alexander_ the VIth engaged _Gaspar Torella_ to write of this Distemper. This Pope was in League with _Alphonsus_ King of _Naples_, against _Charles_ VIII. King of _France_, to prevent his passing thro’ _Italy_, when he went to besiege _Naples_; yet this Author is so far from allowing it to have had its Original there, that he tells us, the Astrologers were of opinion, that it proceeded from I know not what particular Constellations. Nor does _Sebastianus Aquilanus_, who lived at that time, allow it to be any other than an ancient Disease; or _Antonius Scanarolius_, who wrote in 1498, which was but 4 or 5 Years after that Siege. Nor do several other Authors, then living, say one Word about this _Neapolitan_ Story. But it seems _Ulricus de Hutten_, a _German_ Kt. no Physician, positively affirms this Disease to have had its Rise there; but how he should come to know this, who lived at such a distance from the Place, and they, who were Physicians residing as it were upon the Spot, be ignorant of it, will be as much credited, as his following inconsistent Relation, which will sufficiently prove, how little care he took to be apprised of the Truth of what he wrote. This very Author tells us, the Disease was unknown till the Year 1493, or thereabouts; that he himself had it, when he was a Child, and so consequently that it was hereditary, or from the Nurse. He Wrote his Book of this Distemper at _Mentz_, where it was printed by _John Scheffer_ in 4_to_, 1519. Now if we allow him to be but 27 Years of Age, when he wrote, (for he cannot be suppos’d to be less, who before this took upon him to cure his Father of the _Venereal Disease_, without the Assistance of any Physician or Surgeon,) he must have had the Distemper upon him, according to his own Account, before ever it was in being. Thus we may see, how Persons may be impos’d upon by a hasty and inconsistent Writer, no way qualified for such an Undertaking, and greedily receive in Falshoods instead of Truths, if they will not be at the Pains of consulting the Original Writings of our Predecessors, the only sure Method of overthrowing such chimerical and imaginary Notions.

I have in my former Letters, to Dr. DOUGLASS, sufficiently I think proved that the _first_ Degree of the _Venereal Disease_ was very common among us some hundreds of Years before it is commonly said to have been known in _Europe_; there will be no Reason for any body to conceive we were at that time in any measure Strangers to it, when it came to be confirmed; more especially, when we consider the Methods of Treatment in those Times, which consisting principally in topical Applications, many of their Patients could not possibly escape having it confirmed on them. Now when it was in this confirmed State, the Writers of those early times looked upon it as an _entirely new_ Disease, and not a Consequent of any Evil before contracted, because they were not apprised, that the _first_ Symptoms being removed, and the Disease to Appearance cured, it should afterwards discover it self in such a manner, as should not seem to have the least Analogy with the Symptoms, that first attack’d a part which had been for a considerable time free from any Misfortune. But because the Symptoms are the only true Characteristicks, whereby we are infallibly able to know one Disease from another, it may be expected, that I produce sufficient Authorities to demonstrate they were all of them known and described by ancient Physical and Chirurgical Writers, just as they appear to be in the _Venereal Disease_ at this Day, if I would prove that _Disease_ to be of a much more ancient Date, than is generally thought; and if I do this, I cannot but think it will be satisfactory, since we can have no other way of coming to a Knowledge of any one Distemper, than by its Symptoms. The Method of laying down the exact Succession of them, will be impossible to be reduced to any certain and infallible Rule, there being so great a Variety of Causes, that obstruct such a Regularity; for which Reason, I shall take notice of them in such Order as they most generally appear, which was upon no account to be expected from our antient Writers, insomuch as they mention every particular Symptom by it self, not knowing but that they were independent of each other, and that each of them was a distinct Disease. However, the proving these Symptoms were in being in these _early_ times, will be as strong an Argument to prove the Antiquity of this Distemper, as if they had been register’d in the most exact Order of Succession, because we shall, upon the strictest Examination, find they are peculiar to the _Venereal Malady_ only. I have, I hope, sufficiently made it appear in my former Letter, that the _first Degree_ of this _Disease_ was anciently known among us by the name of _Brening_, or _Burning_; and that it was the same Thing with what we now call a _Clap_, The Symptoms, which are usually its Concomitants, are the _Phymosis_, and _Parahphymosis_, both which are accurately described, and proper Remedies, for them set down by _John Arden_, Esq; in another Manuscript of his, curiously written upon Vellum, and beautifully illuminated. The imprudent Method of Cure of this _first Degree_ of the _Venereal Malady_, is sometimes attended with a Caruncle in the _Urethra_, which was a Disease very common among us anciently: For not to mention other _early_ writers, _Arden_ gives us the Case of a certain Rector, who had such a _Substance_, like a Wart, growing in the _Penis_, which he says _frequently happens_, and of another which had such an _Excrescence_ as big as a _small Strawberry_, which (says he) _proceeded from the corrupted Matter remaining in the_ Urethra. And indeed there is not any Symptom of the _Venereal Disease_, that I find so often mentioned as this of the _Caruncle_, insomuch that it seems to have been more common in those _early Times_, than at _this Day_. But this must be certainly owing to the smooth and oily Remedies they were continually injecting, which, by their relaxing and softning the Fibres of the Part, must necessarily dispose the Contexture of small Blood Vessels, lodged at the bottom of the little Ulcerations, to fill with nutritious Juices, and to extend themselves so, as to form such fungous Excrescences; and so solicitous were they for removing these Inconveniences, that they made use of several Ways by Corrosives and other Methods, to accomplish this end; and a very early Writer among us, has given a very methodical and curious Tract on this Subject, wherein he recommends the removing them by the _medicated-Candle_, which we use at this Day, and lays down divers other Instructions, in relation to it, which makes it probably the best Discourse on this Subject, that was ever yet written. He takes notice of those _contumacious-Ulcers_, which happen upon the _Glans_ and the neighbouring Parts, which we now call _Shankers_; and the great Trouble our ancient Authors found in attempting their Cure, sufficiently discover them to have had their Original from a Venereal Infection. These several Symptoms of the _Venereal-Malady_ our _early_ Writers are very full in their Accounts of, and others, when the _Disease_ was in a more confirmed State, to which they appropriated particular Names, perhaps more significant and expressive than those imposed by _modern_ Authors. Thus the _Buboes_ in the _Groin_ they called _Dorsers_, which I have given a Reason for before; and the _Venereal-Nodes_ on the _Shin-Bones_ they termed the _Boon-haw_, which gives us a perfect Idea, not only of the Part affected, but after what manner it was diseased; for the old English Word _Hawe_, signified a Swelling of any Part. Thus for instance, a little Swelling upon the _Cornea_, was anciently called the _Hawe_ in the _Eye_; and the Swelling that frequently happens on the Finger, on one side the Nail, was called the _White-Hawe_, and afterwards _Whitflaw_. The _Process_ this Author recommends, for the Cure of the _Boon_ or _Bone-Hawe_, is by making use of a Plaister, which had a Hole cut in the midst, to circumscribe it; and applying a _Caustic_ of unslacked Lime, and black Soap incorporated together; which Plaister and Bandage were to be secured on the part 4 Hours, and longer, if that was not found sufficient: After this he proceeds to the separating the _Slough, &c._ This Practice of his seems to have been found out by accident. For he tells us, when he was a young Practitioner, he having applyed both the Natural and Artificial _Arsenic_ to the Leg of a Man, who was his Patient, it so mortified the Flesh, as surprized him; but by proper Digestives, the _Eschar_ coming off, and leaving the Bone bare, he scraped it with an Instrument for several Days, and drest it with Incarnatives, designing to have ingendred Flesh on it; but this proving unsuccessful, he continued to scrape it, till he observed it move under the Instrument; after which having separated it, he found the Sore covered with new Flesh, and that the Bone was 4 Inches in length, 2 in breadth, and very thick, upon the Removal of which the Patient was soon cured. Thus it’s probable this Observation of this great Man led our Predecessors to practice the very same Method; and we do at _this Day_ in our Hospitals treat the _Venereal Nodes_ on the _Shins_ exactly as is here described, where we observe the same Appearances, he so long before took notice of; and it is not in the least to be doubted, but the _Boon-Haw_ and our _Venereal Nodes_ are the same _Disease_. By the Appearance of some of the last of these Symptoms, we infallibly judge the Patient has had the Infection upon him a considerable time, and that the _Disease_ is making its gradual Advances, to the corrupting and destroying the whole Frame of the Body. That this was the Conclusion of the Miseries of those Persons, who gave themselves up to the deceitful-Delights and Entertainments of lewd-Women, in those _early-times_ as well as _now_, I cannot better prove than by those remarkable Instances you quoted from a MS. in _Lincoln_-Colledge, in _Oxon_, Viz. _Novi enim ego Magister_ Thomas Gascoigne, _licet indignus sacræ Theologiæ Doctor, qui hæc scripsi & collegi, diversos viros, qui mortui fuerunt ex putrefactione membrorum suorum genitalium & corporis sui; quœ corruptio & putrefactio, ut ipsi dixerunt, causata fuit per exercitium copulæ carnalis cum mulieribus. Magnus enim dux in Anglia, scil._ J. de Gaunt, _mortuus est ex tali putrefactione membrorum genitalium, & corporis sui, causatâ per frequentationem mulierum. Magnus enim fornicator fuit, ut in toto Regno Angliæ divulgabatur, & ante mortem suam jacens sic infirmus in lecto, eandem putrefactionem Regi; Angliæ Ricardo secundo ostendit, cum idem Rex eundem Ducem in suâ infirmitate visitavit; & dixit mihi qui ista novit unus fidelis sacræ Theologiæ Baccalaureus. Willus etiam longe vir maturæ ætatis & de civitat. Londonii, mortuus est ex tali putrefactione membrorum suorum genitalium, & corporis sui, causatâ per copulam carnalem cum Mulieribus, ut ipsemet pluries confessus est ante mortem suam, quum manu sua propria eleemosynas distribuit, ut ego novi, anno Dni. 1430._ Now what those Instances mentioned from _Arden_, or these from _Gascoigne_, who was then Chancellor of _Oxford_, could possibly be, but _Venereal-Cases_, I would be obliged to any body to inform me. Certain it is, no _Disease_ was ever known to be gotten by the carnal Conversation of Women, which first attacked the _Genitals_, causing a Corruption and Putrefaction of them, and afterward of the whole Frame of the Body, but that which is _Venereal_. For nothing is more commonly known at this Day, than that after the Venereal-Engagement with an impure Woman, the _Penis_ is the Part where the Scene is first laid for the succeeding Tragical Appearances; and there, and in the Neighbouring Parts, do the Symptoms of the Disease, as its Retainers, always first assemble, till the malignant Poison taint the Blood and other Juices; which being convey’d over the whole Frame of the human Fabric, if not check’d, soon brings about its total Corruption.