<A TURNER, DANIEL>

Excerpt from a description of ‘siphylis’ in Daniel Turner’s A Practical Dissertation on the Venereal Disease, 1732

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But leaving our Reader, who may be deſirous

of farther Satisfaction in this Controverſy to the

peruſal of thoſe Letters already refer’d to, as well

as to what this Author has ſaid farther upon this

Head in his ſaid Hiſtory, I intend what I have

here laid down ſhall ſuffice for its Chronology or

Time, the Topology or Place, and the Hiſtoriography

or Account of the Diſeaſe in general; which

with ſome other Writers thereon, we ſhall now

define, A venomous or contagious Diſtemper, for

the moſt part contracted by impure Coition, at leaſt

ſome Contact of the Genitals of both Sexes, or ſome

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other lewd and filthy Dalliance between each other

that way tending.

I ſaid for the moſt part, becauſe it is beyond

Controverſy, the Infection is alſo communicated

by other ways, as from pocky Parents by Inheritance;

by ſucking an infected Nurſe, to the

Child; ſucking an infected Nurſe, to the

Child; ſuckling a diſeaſed Child, to the Nurſe;

lying alſo in Bed with the Diſeaſed, without any

carnal Familiarity; by which, though it may be

Poſſible for ſtrong and vigorous Bodies to eſcape,

yet are the tender ones, eſpecially of little Infants,

very likely to be contaminated, as I have

more Reaſon to believe than by bare Imagination.

There are ſeveral other more uncommon Ways

of giving as well as receiving the venereal Venom;

ſome of which I have already imparted to

the World, in ſhort Remarks upon a Quack

Pamphlet, printed many Years paſt: But the

Thought of ſuch vile Monſters, and their execrable

Practices, is too ſhocking (unleſs to the Dregs

of human Nature) to bear even a Repetition of

Circumſtances, and fit only for a deteſtable Gonologium

or Collection of Smut and Obſcenity, in

which I am told they have been inſerted, and ſome

of the Author’s own Obſervations.

As for thoſe fancied Ways of catching it by

common Converſation, drinking after one, ſitting

on the ſame Cloſe-ſtool, drawing on a Glove, wiping

on the Napkin or Towel, after the infected

Perſon, with a hundred the like Stories; ſome of

which you will meet with in the Proſecution of

this Diſcourſe; I believe in our time (whatever

may have happened formerly) there is no great

Danger: Yet we find in one of our late Chronicles,

that theſe and ſuch like Imaginations were

ſo ſtrongly rivetted in Mens Minds at that time,

even thoſe of the better and more learned Sort,

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that it was one of the Articles againſt a noted

Cardinal, That he had breathed on the King,

when he, the ſaid Cardinal, had this Diſeaſe upon

him: Which you will find in Baker’s Chronicle,

and of which Paſſage Dr. Harvy has alſo taken

Notice. Hildanus likewiſe tells us of a young

Gentlewoman, who contracted the ſame, by only

putting on the Apparel of a Gentleman (that it

ſeems was pox’d) at a Maſquerade, of which,

through Modeſty concealing her Illneſs, (which

firſt of all had ſeized the Pudenda) till ſhe was paſt

Recovery, ſhe deceaſed. The good Man’s Credulity,

at leaſt his Charity, might however be

abus’d in this Relation, as the young Lady perhaps

was alſo after the Maſque, otherwiſe than

by ſimply putting on the Habit. But were it ſo

as the Caſe is ſtated, there is nothing therein

much more admirable than what the ſame great

Man recites of a whole Family he knew infected,

viz. the Wife with three Children, and a

fourth in the Womb, as alſo a Maid Servant, by

the Huſband, who had got the Diſtemper in

their Abſence, only by ſleeping in the ſame Bed

with his Man Servant, whom he after underſtood

was broke out with this Diſtemper.

Rhazes the Arabian has a very odd Story of

an Ulcer on the Penis, occaſion’d (as he delivers

it) ob Mulieris aſcenſionem in re venerea perficienda

ſupra virum, which however fanciful, has little

Probability of Truth, or Foundation for a Surmiſe,

that ſuch an irregular Poſition could give

riſe to an Ulcer, whether venereal or not, if the

Woman was not infected.

The Relation of Horſtius and Hornungius are

equally ſtrange, of ſeveral People infected in the

Bagnio, by having the ſame Scarificator apply’d

after Cupping, as had been uſed to a venereal Patient;

which ſeems alike credible with that of

the Prieſt poxed at his Ear, in the time of confeſſing

a wanton Nun; the venomous Breath

from her Mouth defiling the holy Father: But

enough of this.

I call’d it venomous and contagious in my Definition,

becauſe it catches and ſpreads like a Poiſon

(although not at a diſtance now-a-days) by a

ſimple Contact, and for that Nature, (as in the

Caſe of other venomous Infections, got into the

Blood) ſtrives to throw it out in Boils and Blotches,

as they are vulgarly ſo called; making uſe alſo, as

in the Plague itſelf, of the Axillary, but more

commonly of the Inguinal Glands, for its Diſcharge;

and by which the ſame Poiſon is oftentimes

evacuated, eſpecially when promoted and

help’d forward by Art. Again, as each Poiſon is

ſaid to have its proper Antidote, with which to

encounter it; ſo alſo has this of ours, and without

which all other Medicaments, whether alterative

or purgative, (whatever ſome Perſons prattle

to the contrary) are, I fear, incapable truly

and thoroughly to eliminate and extirpate the

ſame.