Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/594

 efforts that have been made to ascertain the precise date when this disease first appeared in Europe:—

It is just as foolish to suppose that the date of the first appearance of syphilis may be discovered as it is to hope that the disease will ever entirely disappear. As long as wealth and idleness continue to exist, as long as there are men who remain unmarried and women whose moral character is of a yielding nature, and as long as it is not possible for the police to creep into every nook and corner, just so long will licentiousness and indulgence in fleshly lusts continue to disturb the peace of the community. These are the conditions necessary to the development and spread of syphilis.

Some account of the treatment of this form of venereal disease comes next in order. It is commonly believed, says the author just quoted, that it was from the Spanish physicians of the sixteenth century that we learned how to treat syphilis by the methodical employment of mercurial preparations. (See footnote at the bottom of page 542.) He adds that there was published by Juan Almenar at Venice, in 1502, a book which bears the title: "A treatise on the Morbus Gallicus, in which it is demonstrated how the patient may be treated in such a successful manner that the disease will never return, nor will any objectionable lesions develop in the mouth; and yet, during the progress of the treatment, the patient is not required to remain in bed." The author of this book, who was a resident of Valencia, Spain, was a man of noble birth. His treatise passed through eight successive editions, the last of which was printed at Basel in 1536. Almenar's plan of treatment was to employ mercurial inunctions in such moderate doses as not to induce salivation. If, at the end of a few days, he saw evidences of an approach of this symptom, he substituted baths and evacuant remedies (rhubarb and senna) for a short time, and also prescribed a more nourishing diet and the taking of various internal remedies. Then, later, the inunctions were resumed. The exact duration of such a course of treatment is not stated. So far as I am able to judge from the account given by Finckenstein, Almenar found it necessary in some cases