Part 21

[85] _Wendelinus Hock de Brackenau_ entitled his Treatise on the Venereal Disease: _Mentagra_, sive Tractatus de causis, praeseruatis, regimine et cura Morbi Gallici, vulgo Mala Francosz., etc., (Mentagra, or a Treatise on the Causes, Preventives, Treatment and Cure of the so called French Disease, etc.). Strasburg 1514. 4to. _Sartorius_ Frid. praes. _Conrad. Johrenio_, Diss. de mentagra ad loc. Plinii Secundi hist. nat. lib. XXVI. cap. 1. (Dissertation on mentagra in connexion with the passage of Pliny Secundus’ Hist. Naturalis bk. XXVI. ch. 1.). Frankfurt-on-Oder N. D. 49 pp. 4to. Gives a sort of exegesis of the passage, speaks in first place of new diseases in general, passes on to the Venereal Disease, the antiquity of which the author upholds, and finally discusses Mentagra, which he holds to be a leprous-syphilitic affection. The work is still quite worth reading, more especially as the author quotes some passages from the Chronicle of _Anhalt von Beckmann_, at that time still unprinted, and which we find mentioned hardly anywhere else.

[86] _Hensler_, “Vom abendländischen Aussatze im Mittelalter”, (On Occidental Leprosy in the Middle Ages). Hamburg 1790. pp. 67, 206, 307.

[87] _Pliny_, Hist. Nat. Bk. XXVI. chs. 1, 2, 3.

[88] _Galen_, De comp. med. secundum locos, edit. Kühn Vol. XII. p. 841. προσχαριζόμενον τῇ ἐξωτάτῳ γραμμῇ τοῦ λειχῆνος μικρόν τι τῶν ἀπαθῶν σωμάτων. (giving up to the external mark of the scab yet another small part of the bodies hitherto unaffected).

[89] _Galen_, (De comp. med. secundum locos bk. V., edit. Kühn Vol. XII. p. 830.) quotes from Criton the following description in further confirmation: Πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἐπὶ τῶν γενείων λειχῆνας πάθος ἀηδέστατον, καὶ γὰρ κνησμοὺς ἐπιφέρει καὶ περίστασιν τῶν πεπονθότων καὶ κίνδυνον οὐκ ὀλίγον, ἕρπει γὰρ ἔστιν ὅτε καθ’ ὅλου τοῦ προσώπου, καὶ ὀφθαλμῶν _ἅπτεται_, καὶ σχεδὸν τῆς _ἀνωτάτω δυσμορφίας_ ἐστὶν αἴτιον, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο χρηστέον ἂν εἴη ἐπιμελέστερον τῇ θεραπείᾳ, ἐφορῶντα τοὺς _παροξυσμοὺς_ καὶ _τὰ διαλείμματα_ καὶ _συγκρίνοντα ἀπὸ τῶν κεχρονισμένων τὰ νεοσύστατα_, ἐφ’ ὧν ἁρμόσει χρῆσθαι τοῖς ξηραίνουσι φαρμάκοις· _ὅταν δ’ εἰς ψώραν ἢ λέπραν μεταπέσῃ_ πρὸς τοῖς ξηραίνουσι χρῆσθαι καὶ τοῖς ῥύπουσιν. (But in the case of _lichenes_, scabs, on the chin the malady is most troublesome. Now it brings on itchings and a critical condition of the afflicted and no small danger; for it creeps sometimes over the whole face, and _attacks the eyes_, and generally is productive of the _most utter disfigurement_. Wherefore physicians should devote more than ordinary care to its treatment, watching _the crises of the malady, and the intervals, and judging from the symptoms that have become chronic such as have but just broken out_, on the appearance of which it will be expedient to exhibit siccative medicines. On the other hand when _it has resolved itself into the itch or leprosy_, exhibit cathartics in combination with the siccatives). The same is contributed also by _Aëtius_, Tetrab. II. serm. 4. ch. 16. Besides the discrepant statement to the effect that the eyes are attacked as well, the most noteworthy points are the crises and intervals Mentagra went through, and its passing over into Psora and Lepra (Itch and Leprosy).

[90] _Galen_ and _Aëtius_, loco citato, give particulars of the composition of a number of these.

[91] _Gruner_, Morborum antiquitates pp. 162-171.

[92] _J. C. Dieterich_, Iatreum Hippocraticum, continens Narthecium medicinae veteris et novae (Hippocratic Remedies, containing a Treasury of Ancient and Modern Medicine), Ulm 1661. 4to., p. 692.

[93] Hence also _Diogenes Laertius_, VI. 2. 6., ἅλα λείχειν (to lick up salt).

[94] The explanation of _Galen_, De simpl. medicam. temperam. et facult. bk. VII. ch. 11. 6. (edit. Kühn, XII. p. 57.): λειχὴν ὠνομάσθαι δ’ οὕτω δοκεῖ διὰ τὸ λειχῆνας θεραπεύειν (and it seems lichen,—moss, is so called because it cures lichenes,—scabs), is hardly likely to find any one else to subscribe to it.

[95] _Aristophanes_, Knights 1280-1283. In the Wasps, 1280-1283, _Aristophanes_ says, speaking of the same Ariphrades:

Εἶτ’ Ἀριφράδην πολύ τι θυμοσοφικώτατον, ὃν τινά ποτ’ ὤμοσε μαθόντα παρὰ μηδενὸς, ἀλλ’ ἀπὸ σοφῆς φύσεος αὐτόματον ἐκμαθεῖν γλωττοποιεῖν εἰς τὰ πορνεῖ’ εἰσιόνθ’ ἑκάστοτε

(Then Ariphrades, much more ingenious-clever, who he swore without ever having learnt the trick from any, but all out of his own wisdom, discovered how to work the tongue, going into the brothels everywhere).

Also Peace 883-885.:

ΤΡ. τίς; ΟΙΚ. ὅστις; Ἀριφράδης, ἄγειν παρ’ αὑτὸν ἀντιβολῶν. ΤΡ. Ἀλλ', ὦ μέλε, τὸν ζωμὸν αὐτῆς προσπεσὼν ἐκλάψεται.

(_Trygaeus._ Who? _Servant._ Who? why Ariphrades, begging to bring her to him. _Trygaeus._ But, dear man, he will fall on her, and lick up her broth).

[96] _Anthologia Graeca_, cum versione Latina _Hugonis Grotii_, edita ab H. de Bosch (_Greek Anthology_, with Latin version by _Hugo Grotius_, edit. H. de Bosch) Utrecht 1795. 4to., Vol. I. p. 38. bk. II. Tit. 5. Epigr. 9. _Brunck’s_ Analecta, Vol. III. p. 165. Epigr. 76. Here too should be quoted the following Epigram (_Brunck’s_ Analecta, Vol. II. p. 386. Anthology, bk. II. Tit. 5. Epigr. 8.) of _Ammianus_, which at the same time speaks for the general meaning of _licking_:

Οὐχ ὅτι τὸν κάλαμον λείχεις, διὰ τοῦτό σε μισῶ, Ἀλλ’ ὅτι τοῦτο ποιεῖς καὶ δίχα τοῦ καλάμου.

(Not because you lick the _reed_, not for this do I abominate you; but because you do so even without the reed). _Ausonius_, Epigr. 126., endeavours in another way, by initial letters, to indicate λείχει (he licks):

Λαῒς, Ἔρως, et Ἴτυς, Χείρων et Ἔρως, Ἴτυς alter Nomina siscribis, prima elementa adime: Ut facias verbum, quod tu facis, Eune magister: Dicere me Latium non decet opprobrium.

(Λαῒς, Ἔρως, and Ἴτυς, Χείρων and Ἔρως, Ἴτυς repeated,—if you write these names, then take off the first letters, you make a verb with them that means what you do, learned Eunus; it does not become me to name the abomination nation in Latian speech). At the same time we see from this that in the IVth. Century, where _Ausonius_ lived at Bordeaux, the vice of the _cunnilingue_ was still constantly practised and that not even in secret. Should the words of _Clement of Alexandria_, Paedagog. II. ch. 8. p. 178., also be brought into connection with this: ἡ δὲ ἐπιτήδευσις τῆς εὐωδίας, δελεάρ ἐστι ῥαθυμίας, πόῤῥωθεν _εἰς λίχνον_ ἐπιθυμίον ἐπισπωμένης. (And the cultivation of sweet perfume is a bait of idleness, indirectly alluring to dainty voluptuousness)? The _male olere_ (to have an evil smell) held good equally for the _cunnilingue_.

_Diogenes Laertius_, V. 65., quotes verses of _Crates_, where we read: οὔτε _λίχνος_, πόρνης ἐπαγγελλόμενος παρῇσι (nor dainty desire, proclaimed on the cheeks of a harlot); the same occur also in _Clement of Alexandria_, loco citato ch. 10. Finally yet another quotation, from _Martial_ (XI. 59.), should come in here; he says to a pathic:

At tibi nil faciam: sed lota mentula laeva λειχάζειν cupidae dicet avaritiae,

(But to _you_ I will do no harm; nay! rather shall my member, when your left hand has done its work and been washed, say to your grasping avarice,—now lick, fellate, me). This passage has been misunderstood by most of the commentators, because they chose to read _lana_ (woollen cloth) for _laeva_ (the left hand), or else thought to find here a reference to manustupration (masturbation with the hand). But really it means nothing more than that the poet declares he will resort to _irrumation_, after his mentula (member) has been washed with the left hand, [the Latin cannot mean this; _lotā_ is ablative case, and must be taken with _laevā_. _Transl._],—a usage to which we shall come back again subsequently; but which is at once clearly authenticated by a fragment of _Lucilius_, where we read:

Laeva lacrimas mutoni absterget amica.

(With the left hand his mistress wipes the tears from his penis).

[97] _Galen_, Isagoge ch. 18. (edit. Kühn Vol. XIV. 779).

[98] _Galen_, loco citato ch. 13. pp. 657, 758.

[99] _Plato_, Phaedo p. 81 A., οἱ ἀφικομένη ὑπάρχει αὐτῇ εὐδαίμονι εἶναι, πλάνης καὶ ἀγνοιας καὶ φόβων καὶ _ἀγρίων ἐρώτων_ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων κακῶν τῶν ἀνθρωπείων ἀπηλλαγμένῃ. (So having come there, the soul is in a state of assured happiness being free of error and ignorance and fear, and _fierce passions_ and the other ills of mankind).

[100] _Plutarch_, De solert. anim. p. 972 D., _Ἔρωτες_ δὲ πολλῶν οἱ μὲν ἄγριοι καὶ περιμανεῖς γεγόνασιν, οἱ δὲ ἔχοντες οὐκ ἀπάνθρωπον ὡραϊσμόν. (But for the passions of many, some are naturally fierce and frantic, but there are others again that show no anti-social effeminacy). The _Etymologicum Magnum_ says: ἄγριοι οἱ παιδεράσται, ἤτοι _ὅτι ἄγριόν ἐστι τὸ πάθος_ ἡ παιδεραστία. (wild,—means the paederasts, that is, because the _passion of paederastia is a wild one_). Perhaps too the phrase of Theocritus is referable to the same: ἄγριον, ἄγριον ἕλκος ἔχει κατὰ μηρὸν Ἄδωνις (a savage, savage wound has Adonis in the thigh).

[101] In _Hesychius_ occurs also the form ἀγριοψωρία (malignant itch). Whether the latter is connected with our subject, technical investigations must inform us. The passing over of Mentagra into Psora (Itch) points that way.

[102] Willian, “Die Hautkrankheiten” (Skin-Diseases), transl. by F. Friese, Breslau 1794. 4to., Vol. 1. pp. 29 and 32.

[103] _Paulus Aegineta_, De re Med. bk. IV. ch. 3., ἀγρίους δὲ καλοῦσι λειχήνας τοὺς ὑπὸ τῶν μετρίως ξηραινόντων οὐδὲν ὀνιναμένους. ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν σφοδρῶς παροξύνοντας. (now they call _malignant lichens_ those which get no benefit from the milder siccatives, and are actually aggravated by the more violent).

[104] _Oribasius_, De morb. curat., edit. Eunap. bk. III. ch. 59., in Steph. collect. p. 637., Ergo quibus nihil affertur auxilii ab iis medicamentis quae mediocriter siccant et exacerbantur ab iis quae siccant vehementer, eas λειχῆνας ἄγριους vocant. (Accordingly such _lichens_ as are in no way benefited by remedies that are moderate siccatives, and are aggravated by those that are violent ones, these they call λειχῆνας ἀγρίους (malignant lichens)).

[105] _Jöhrens_, in his Dissertation already cited speaks thus on the subject (p. 47): “De feminis, cum suavia maritorum evitare nequiverint, quomodo ab ista infectione liberae evaserint, maius restat dubium: nos opinamur, cum viri barbam saepius radi soliti fuerint, ea propter patentibus a novacula poris virulentum illud fermentum aut incentivum toxicum facilis sese insinuare et characterem suum imprimere; imberbes contra feminas, glabritie cutis resistente _porisque minus patulis_, sospitari potuisse.” (In the case of women, when they have been unable to avoid the caresses of husbands, it remains very doubtful how they have got off free from this infection. Our own opinion is that as men have always been accustomed to have the beard shaved frequently, for this reason the pores being opened more widely by the action of the razor, that virulent ferment and active poison creeps in more easily and produces its characteristic effect. On the other hand women being beardless, the baldness of the skin offering an obstacle and the _pores being less open_, have been able to escape).

[106] However this did happen in isolated cases, as is shown by the example of Philaenis, who indeed was a Tribad properly, in _Martial_, bk. VII. Epigr. 67.,

Post haec omnia cum libidinatur, Non fellat, putat hoc parum virile. Sed plane medias vorat puellas. Di mentem tibi dent tuam, Philaeni, Cunnum lingere quae putas virile.

(After all these indulgences when she still feels lustful, she does not _fellate_, this she deems unmanly; she just mouths girls’ middles. The gods give you your desire, Philaenis, you who think it a _manly_ vice to act the cunnilingue). Comp. bk. IV. Epigr. 41. But it was always a very exceptional thing to find this vice practised among women; in fact _Juvenal_, Sat. II. 47-49., denies it altogether:

Non erit ullum Exemplum in nostro tam detestabile sexu, Taedia non lambit Cluviam, nec Flora Catullam.

(No such detestable example is to be found in our sex,—Taedia does not lick Cluvia, nor Flora Catulla).

[107] It is a surprising circumstance that the words _basium_, _basiare_, _basiator_ (kiss, to kiss, kisser) appear only to have come into use by the Romans from the time of Catullus onwards, and are found almost exclusively in Martial, Juvenal and the still later Petronius, so coinciding with a period in which dissoluteness of morals had reached the highest pitch among the Romans. Some would derive the word _basium_ from βάζω, loqui, (to speak); so perhaps it may have been used in a similar way to narrare (to tell) in _Martial_ (III. 84.) in the sense of _cunnilingere_. Βάζω, βαίνω, βεινῶ and βινῶ (to speak, to go, to have sexual intercourse) seem all to have one and the same stem. The second of the two Epigrams of _Martial_ quoted in the text reminds us almost involuntarily of the first Tarsica of Chrysostom. Apparently _basium_ and _basiare_ always imply a _vicious kiss_, to _kiss viciously_, in a general way. Hence _Martial_, XI. 62., Mediumque mavult basiare quam summum, (And she had rather kiss his middle than his head). _Petronius_, Sat., Ultime cinaedus supervenit,—extortis nos clunibus cecidit, modo basiis olidissimis inquinavit. (Finally a _cinaedus_ appeared,—he made at us with writhing buttocks, and anon befouled us with most evil-smelling kisses).

[108] _Galen_, loco citato, mentions in particular the physicians. _Crito_ and _Pamphilus_, who lived in the reign of Domitian, and who accordingly were contemporaries of _Martial’s_, as pre-eminently successful in the treatment of _mentagra_.

[109] Also _Hippocrates_, De aere aq. et loc. p. 549. Vol. I. ed. Kühn, says: ἀλλὰ τὴν _ἡδονὴν κρατέειν_, διότι πολύμορφα γίνεται τὰ ἐν τοῖς θηρίοις· περὶ μὲν οὖν _Αἰγυπτίων_ καὶ Λιβύων οὕτως ἔχειν μοι δοκεῖ. (But that _love of pleasure_ gained the mastery, inasmuch as the passions in beasts are of many forms; now with regard to the _Egyptians_ and Libyans this seems to me to be the case).

[110] _Julian_, Caesares, in “Opera Omnia” Paris 1630. 4to., Pt. II. p. 9., Ἐπιστραφέντες δὲ πρὸς τὴν καθέδραν ὤφθησαν ὠτειλαὶ κατὰ τὸν νῶτον μυρίαι, καυτῆρες τινὲς καὶ ξέσματα, καὶ πληγαὶ χαλεπαὶ καὶ μώλωπες, ὑπὸ τῆς ἀκολασίας καὶ ὠμότητος, ψωραί τινες καὶ λειχῆνες, οἷον ἐγκεκαυμέναι. (for translation see text).

[111] _Suetonius_, Vita Tiberii ch. 68.

[112] _Tacitus_, Annals bk. IV. ch. 57.

[113] _Galen_, De composit. medicament. secundum genera bk. V. ch. 12. edit. Kühn Vol. XIII. p. 836.

[114] _Bertrandi_, “Abh. von den Geschwüren” (Treatise on Ulcers) from the Italian. Erfurt 1790. 8vo. § 200.

[115] _Aëtius_, Tetrab. II. serm. 4. ch. 16., Quandoquidem vero plurimi sunt qui illitionum usum aversantur, _maluntque adhibere emplastra_, utpote quae neque per sudores obtortos defluant, neque rarefacta etiam cutem circumtendant, annectam et horum aliquot apparatus. (However, inasmuch as there are many who are opposed to the use of salves, and prefer to apply plasters, on the ground that the latter are not liable to run through sweatings that are superinduced nor yet to liquify and spread on the skin, I will add some forms of these plasters).

[116] _Plinius Valerianus_, De re medica bk. II. 56., Graeco nomine lichenes appellatur, quod vulgo mentagram appellant, et est vitium, quod per totam faciem solet serpere, oculis tantum immunibus; descendit vero in collum et pectus ac manus, foedat cutem; eosque, qui sic vexantur, osculari non convenit, quoniam contactus eorum perniciosus fore perhibetur. (In Greek nomenclature the name _lichenes_ is given to what the common people call _mentagra_, and is a malady that as a rule creeps over the whole face, the eyes alone being unaffected. But it also goes down to the neck and breast and hands, disfiguring the skin. It is not right for those so afflicted to kiss, for their contact is said to be injurious.)—_Marcellus Empiricus_, De med. liber ch. 19., Ad lichenem sive mentagram, quod vitium neglectum solet per totam faciem et per totum corpus serpere et plures homines inquinare. Nam Soranus medicus quondam ducentis hominibus hoc morbo laborantibus curandis in Aquitania se locavit. (For _lichen_ or _mentagra_, a malady which if neglected will creep over the whole face and the whole body, and disfigures many men. Indeed Soranus a Physician at one time sold his professional services in Aquitania to two hundred patients suffering from this disease).

[117] _Marcellus Empiricus_, De medicam. liber ch. 19., Adversum _Elephantiasin, quod malum plerumque a facie auspicatur, primumque oritur quasi lenticulis variis et inaequalibus, cute alba, alibi tenui, plerisque locis dura et quasi scabida et ad postremum sic increscit ut ossibus, caro adstricta, tumescentibus primum digitis atque articulis indurescat_. Hic morbus peculiariter Aegyptiorum populis notus est nec solum in vulgus extremum, sed etiam reges ipsos frequenter irrepsit, unde adversus hoc malum solia ipsis in balneo repleta humano sanguine parabantur. Mustelae igitur exustae cinis et eiusdem belluae, id est elephantis sanguis immixtus et inlitus, huiusmodi corporibus medetur. (_Against _elephantiasis_, which malady is generally seen in the face, beginning first with a sort of scales of various shape and different size, the skin being white, in some parts thick, in others thin, in most places hard and with a sort of scab over it; eventually the malady increases to such a degree that the flesh is as it were drawn tight over the bones, the fingers and joints swelling first, and becomes indurated._ This disease was particularly familiar among the peoples of Egypt, and not merely did it affect the lowest vulgar, but even frequently crept in amongst kings themselves, whence it came that, to combat the evil, baths filled with human blood were prepared for them in the bath-house. The ashes therefore of a burned weasel and the blood of the corresponding beast, that is to say the elephant, were mixed together and used as an ointment in the remedial treatment of bodies so afflicted).—_Actuarius_, Meth. med. bk. VI. ch. 6. On diseases of the _Face_, reads: Ad affectus eminentes, _facieique pruritus ac principum elephantiae_, (For the principal affections, _itchings of the face and the beginnings of elephantiasis_). Again _Aretaeus_, De sign. chron. bk. II. ch. 13. edit. Kühn p. 179., says: τὰ πολλὰ μὲν ὅκως καὶ _ἀπὸ σκοπιῆς τοῦ προσώπου ἀρχόμενον_ τηλεφανὲς πῦρ κακόν, (Most oftentimes resembling a far-seen bale-fire _beginning from the watchtower, as it were, of the face_).

[118] Commentar. in Horatium. Antwerp 1608. Vol. II. p. 469.

[119] _Zachar. Platner_, De Morbo Compano ad verba Horatii bk. I. Sat. V. v. LXII. prolusio (Dissertation on the Companian Disease as mentioned by Horace). Leipzig 1732. 4to., also reprinted in his Opuscula, Leipzig 1794. 4to. Vol. II. pp. 21-28. The author holds the disease to have been a sort of warts, having a resemblance with those observed in Syphilitic patients.—_Nebel_, E. L. W., De morbis veterum obscuris (On some Obscure Diseases of the Ancients), Sect. I., Giessen 1794. 8vo. pp. 18-25. The author believes the Morbus Campanus to have been identical with Sycosis or θύμιον (large wart), but to have had no connection with the _Lues Venerea_ (Venereal Contagion).

[120] Noteworthy is the explanation of _Isidore_, Etymol. bk. IV. ch. 9. 17., _Oscedo_ est, qua infantum ora exulcerantur, dicta a languore oscitantium. (_Oscedo_ is a complaint whereby children’s mouths become ulcerated, so called from the languor of those gaping); the latter part is unintelligible. Were these _oscitantes_ (gapers) possibly _fellators_? _Lucian_, Pseudolog. ch. 27. says of Timarchus, ἀναπετάσας τὸ στόμα, καὶ ὡς ἔνι πλατύτατον κεχηνὼς, ἠνείχου τυφλούμενος ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ τὴν γνάθον. (and with a gape as wide as is possible to make, you were borne away, your jaw blocked by him).

[121] _Horace_, Odes III. 27. 11. _Ausonius_, Idyll. XI. 15.

[122] _Luxus_ in the sense of sexual excess occurs not unfrequently in ancient writers, e. g. in _Tacitus_, Hist. IV. 14., _Suetonius_, Nero 29. _Capua luxurians_ is well known from the history of Hannibal. It is worth noting that _Paracelsus_ gives the name _luxus_ to Venereal disease; he says, De causis et origine luis Gallicae, (Of the Causes and Origin of the French Contagion), bk. I. ch. 5.: _Luxus_ autem nomen quod attinet, illud ab influentia, id est, efficiente causa desumptum esse intelligendum est. Est autem _luxus_ irritatio quaedam ac titillatus spermatis, ad perficiendum actum venereum, a morbis in corpore latentibus causata, itaque Veneris impressione a morbo in actu ipso facta, tum ex vulgari luxu fit _luxus morbi_ seu _morbidus_. Proinde _luxus_ hic non naturalis sed _Satyricus_ dicendus erit. (But _luxus_ the name that is applied to it, this name must be understood as being taken from the influencing circumstance or efficient cause. Now _luxus_ is a certain irritation or tickling of the seed, leading to the performance of the Venereal act and caused by diseases latent in the body, and so a strong motion of love being made in consequence of the disease in the act itself, then from the common expression _luxus_, is formed _luxus_ of the disease, or morbid _luxus_. It follows this _luxus_ will have to be called not natural, but _Satyric luxus_).

[123] Possibly a _double entendre_ lurks even in the _ad pugnam venere_ (they came to the fight). _Festus_, under the word, says: Osculana pugna in proverbio, quo significabatur victos vincere, (An Osculan—otherwise Asculan,—fight a proverbial saying that signified the vanquished being victorious). The Roman general Laevinus was beaten by King Pyrrhus at Asculum, soon after at the same place the King was himself beaten by Sulpicius.

[124] Ovid, De arte amandi bk. III. v. 778., Nunquam Thebais Hectoreo nupta resedit equo, (Never did his Theban bride—Andromaché,—sit on the Hectorean stallion). Comp. _Martial_, bk. XI. Epigr. 105.

[125] It is worthy of note that _Rhazes_, Elchavi seu Continens, Brescia 1486. fol., p. 276., mentions certain ulcers on the verge, that come from _ascensio mulieris supra virum_ (the woman getting on the man)!

[126] _Seneca_, Nat. Quaest. bk. I. ch. 16., also says of Hostius, who had contrived magnifying mirrors for his use, in order to see himself in all positions: Et quia non tam diligenter intueri poterat, _cum compressus erat et caput merserat, inguinibusque alienis obhaeserat_, opus sibi suum per imagines offerebat, (But as he could not so accurately see, when he was shut in and had plunged down his head, and was fast to another’s private parts, under those circumstances he had his doings represented to him by pictures).—_Catullus_, LXXXIII. 7.,

Nam nihil est quidquam sceleris quo prodeat ultra, Non si _demisso_ se ipse voret _capite_.

(For there exists no further form of wickedness that he can resort to,—not even if he devour himself _with down-pressed head_). _Propertius_, bk. II. 15. 22., Mecum habuit positum lenta puella caput, (A limber girl held her head down-pressed along with me).

[127] Equum, qui nunc aries appellatur, in muralibus machinis, Epeum ad Troiam (sc. invenisse), (The horse, which now is called the ram, among engines for attacking walls, Epeus invented at Troy), says _Pliny_, Hist. Nat. bk. VII. ch. 57. (edit. Franz, Vol. III. p. 287.); similarly _Pausanias_, bk. I. ch. 23., ἵππος δούρειος μηχάνημα εἰς διάλυσιν τοῦ τείχους (a horse of wood an engine for the destruction of the wall). Further ἵππος (horse) is used as a nickname for a lewd man. The Scholiast on _Oribasius_, Collect. Med. bk. XXIV. ch. 8. in _A. Mai_, Auct. Class. e vatican. codd. edit. Vol. IV. p. 30. mentions ἵππος πύργος (horse tower), but in what sense we have not been able to decide.