Even the Christian Church itself possessed, in its early times, aphrodisiacs peculiarly its own. "On trouve," says Voltaire,[165] "dans la lettre à Maitre Acacius Lampirius (Literæ virorum obscurorum) une raillerie assez forte sur la conjuration qu'on employait pair se faire aimer des filles. Le secret consistoit à prendre un cheveu be la fille, on le plaçoit d'abord dans son haut-de-chausses; on faisoit une confession générale et on fesoit dire trois messes, pendant les quelles on mettoit le cheveu autour de son col; on allumait un cièrge béni au dernier Evangile en on prononcait cette formule. 'O Vierge! je te conjure par la vertu du Dieu tout-puissant, par des neuf churs des anges, par la vertu gosdrienne, amène moi icelle fille, en chair et en os, afin que je la saboule à mon plaisir.'"

Bourchard, Bishop of Worms, has transmitted to us[166] an account of certain aphrodisiacal charms practised by women of his time, the disgusting obscenity of which is such that we cannot venture upon translating the passage:

"Fecisti quod quædam mulieres facere solent? Tollunt menstruum suum sanguinem et immiscunt cibo vel potui et dant viris suis ad manducandum vel ad bibendum ut plus diligantur ab eis. Si fecisti, quinque annos per legitimas ferias pniteas.

"Gustasti de semine viri tui ut propter tua diabolica facta plus in amorem exardisceret? Si fecisti, septem annos per legitimas ferias pnitere debeas.

"Fecisti quod quædam mulieres facere solent? Prosternunt se in faciem et discoopertis natibus, jubent ut supra nudas nates conficirtur panis, ut eo decocto tradunt maritis suis ad comedendum. Hoc ideo faciunt ut plus exardescant in amorem suum. Si fecisti, duos annos per legitimas ferias pniteas.

"Fecisti quad quædam mulieres facere solent? Tollunt piscem vivum et mittunt eum in puerperium suum, et tamdiu ibi tenent, donec mortuus fuerit, et decocto pisce vel assato, maritis suis ad comedendum tradunt. Ideo faciunt ut plus in amorem suum exardescant. Si fecisti, duos annos per legitimas ferias pniteas."

Remedies taken internally are not the only ones which stimulate man to sexual intercourse. External applications materially contribute to that end, and liniments have been composed wherewith to anoint the parts of generation. These washes are made of honey, liquid storax, oil and fresh butter, or the fat of the wild goose, together with a small quantity of spurge, pyrethrum, ginger or pepper to insure the remedy's penetrating: a few grains of ambergris, musk, or cinnamon are to be added by way of perfume.

Remedies for the same purpose may also be applied to men's testicles especially; as according to the opinion of Galen, those parts are the second source of heat, which they communicate to the whole of the body; for, besides the power of engendering, they also elaborate a spirituous humour or fluid which renders man robust, hardy, and courageous. The best application of this kind is that composed of cinnamon powder, gilliflower, ginger and rose water, together with theriac, the crumb of bread, and red wine.

In addition to the means already mentioned for restoring vigour to the generative organs, two others may be reckoned which have been successfully resorted to for bracing them in such persons whose reproductive faculties lie dormant rather than extinct: these two methods are known as flagellation and urtication.[167]

Flagellation was recommended by several of the ancient physicians as an effectual remedy in many disorders, and this upon the physiological axiom of Hippocrates—ubi stimulus, ibi affluxus. Seneca considers it as able to remove the quartan ague. Jerome Mercurialis speaks of it as employed by many physicians in order to impart embonpoint to thin, meagre persons; and Galen informs us that slave merchants used it as a means of clearing the complexion of their slaves and plumping them up. Alædeus of Padua, recommends flagellation with green nettles, that is, urtication, to be performed on the limbs of young children for the purpose of hastening the eruption of the small pox. Thomas Campanella[168] attributes to flagellation the virtue of curing intestinal obstructions, and adduces in proof to his assertion, the case of the Prince of Venosa, one of the best musicians of his time, who could not go to stool, without being previously flogged by a valet kept expressly for that purpose.

Even at a later period the same opinion obtained as to the efficacy of flagellation, it being supposed by many physicians to reanimate the torpid circulation of the capillary and cutaneous vessels, to increase muscular energy, to promote absorption, and to favour the necessary secretions of our nature.[169] As an erotic stimulant, more particularly it may be observed that, considering the many intimate and sympathetic relations existing between the nervous branches of the extremity of the spinal marrow, it is impossible to doubt that flagellation exercised upon the buttocks and the adjacent parts, has a powerful effect upon the organs of generation.

Meibomius,[170] the great advocate for the use of this remedy, remarks, that stripes inflicted upon the back and loins are of great utility in exciting the venereal appetite, because they create warmth in those parts whose office it is to elaborate the semen and to convey it to the generative organs. He, therefore, considered it by no means wonderful that the miserable victims of debauchery and lasciviousness, as well as those whose powers have been exhausted by age or excess, should have recourse to flagellation as a remedy. He observes that its effect is very likely to be that of renewing warmth in the now frigid parts, and of furnishing heat to the semen, an effect in producing which the pain itself materially contributes by the blood and heat which is thereby drawn down to the part until they are communicated to the reproductive organs, the erotic passion being thus raised, even in spite of nature herself, beyond her powers. A similar view is taken by a modern writer, whose opinion is "that the effect of flagellation may be easily referred to the powerful sympathy which exists between the nerves of the lower part of the spinal marrow and other organs. Artificial excitement appears in some degree natural; it is observed in several animals, especially in the feline race. Even snails plunge into each other a bony, prickly spur, that arises from their throats, and which, like the sting of the wasp, frequently breaks off, and is left in the wound."[171]

After the appearance of the Abbé Boileau's Histoire de la Flagellation, the Jesuits condemned several propositions found either in that work or in others approved by him. The following is one:

"Necesse est cum musculi lumbares virgis aut flagellis diverberantur, spiritus vitales revelli, adeoque salaces motus ob vicinam partium genitalium et testium excitari, qui venereis ac illecebris cerebrum mentemque fascinant ac virtutem castitatis ad extremas augustias redigunt."

From out of almost innumerable instances of the efficacy of flagellation as an aphrodisiac, the following are selected.

Cornelius Gallus, the friend of Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, and Catullus, and who, according to Pliny, died the most delightful of deaths by expiring in the embraces of the fondest object of his affections,[172] was solely indebted for the delicious transports he enjoyed with her to the scourge with which her severe father chastised her for the faults that originated in too warm a temperament, a punishment which, instead of counteracting, furthered the wishes of the voluptuous Roman.

Jean Pic de Mirandole relates[173] the case of a person known to him who, being a great libertine, could not consummate the act of love without being flagellated until the blood came, and that, therefore, providing himself for the occasion with a whip steeped in vinegar, he presented it to his inamorata, begging her not to spare him, for "plus on le fouettait, plus il y trouvait des délices, la douleur et la volupté marchant, dans cet homme, d'un pas egal."

Meibomius mentions the case of a citizen of Lubeck who, being accused and convicted of adultery, was sentenced to be banished. A woman of pleasure with whom this man had been for a long time intimate, appeared before the judges as a witness on his behalf. This woman swore that the man was never able to consummate the act of love with her unless he had been previously flogged,—an operation which it was also necessary to repeat before each successive indulgence.

That this was a means employed by Abelard in his commerce with Heloisa, appears from the following passages in two of his letters to her;

"Verbera quandoque dabat amor non furor, gratia non ira quæ omnium unguentorum suavitatem transcenderent."[174]

"Stripes which, whenever inflicted by love, not by fury but affection, transcended, in sweetness, every unguent."

"Nosti quantis turpitudinibus immoderata mea libido corpora nostra addixerat et nulla honestatis vel Dei reverentia in ipsis diebus Dominicæ passionis vel quantarumque solemnitatem ut hujus luti volutabro me revocavit. Sed et te nolentem aut dissuadentem quæ natura infirmior eras, ut sæpius minis ac flagellis ad consensum trahebam.[175]"

"Thou knowest to what shameful excesses my unbridled lust had delivered up our bodies, so that no sense of decency, no reverence for God, could, even in the season of our Lord's passion, or during any other holy festival, drag me forth from out that cesspool of filthy mire; but that even with threats and scourges I often compelled thee who wast, by nature, the weaker vessel, to comply, notwithstanding thy unwillingness and remonstrances."

The renowned Tamerlane, the mighty conqueror of Asia, required a like stimulus,[176] the more so perhaps from the circumstance of his being a monorchis.[177]

The Abbé Boileau, in his well known and entertaining "Histoire des Flagellants," partly attributes the gross licentiousness of that period to the strange practice then in vogue of doing penance by being scourged in public; and his brother the celebrated poet and critic, defending the Abbé against the animadversions of the Jesuits, remarks very forcibly:

"Non, le livre des Flagellans N'a jamais condamné, lisez le bien, mes pères, Ces rigidités salutaires Qui, pour ravir le Ciel, saintement violens, Exercent sur leurs corps, tant de Chrétiens austères; Il blâme seulement ces abus odieux D'étaler et d'offrir aux yeux Ce que leur doit toujours cacher la bienveillance, Et combat vivement la fausse piété, Qui sous couleur d'eteindre en nous la volupté Par l'austérité méme, et par la pénitence Sait allumer le feu de la lubricité.[178]"

Flagellation, indeed, as well as the custom of wearing the hair-shirt, so common with the monks, and even with religious lay catholics, was, by the stimulus it imparted to the skin, and hence to the internal viscera, much more likely to increase the energy of the physiological functions, and thus excite the commission of the very acts they are intended to suppress.

The Abbé Chuppe d'Auteroche, member of the Académie des Sciences, and who died in California a few days after the observation of the Transit of Venus in 1760, remarks that the stripes given to persons frequenting the vapour baths in Russia impart activity to the fluids and elasticity to the organs and gives additional stimulus to the venereal appetite.[179]

M. Serrurier records the following curious case. "One of my schoolfellows, who found an indescribable pleasure in being flogged, purposely and wilfully neglected his duty in order to draw upon himself the correction, which never failed to produce an emission of semen. As may easily be imagined he soon began the practice of masturbation, in which he indulged to so frightful an extent that rapid consumption ensued, and he died, a most horrible and disgusting object, affording a melancholy example of that fatal vice."[180]

The case of Jean Jacques Rousseau is well known. When a child he was by no means displeased with the corrections administered to him by a lady considerably his elder, he even frequently sought for a whipping at her hands, especially after he perceived that the flagellation developed in him the manifest token of virility. But he must be allowed to give his own account of it. "Assez long temps," says he, "Madame Lambercier s'entint à la menace, et cette menace d'un châtiment tout nouveau pour moi me semblait très effrayante, mais après l'exécution, je la trouvai moins terrible à l'épreuve que l'attente ne l'avait été, et ce qu'il y a de plus bizarre est qui ce châtiment m'affectionna davantage d'elle qui me l'avoit imposé. Il fallait même toute la vérité de cette affection et toute ma douceur naturelle pour m'empêcher de chercher le retour du même traitement en le méritant, car j'avais trouvé dans la douleur, dans la honte même, un mélange de sensualité qui m'avait laissé plus de désir que de crainte de l'éprouver derechef, par la même main. Il est vrai que comme il se mêlait, sans doute, à cela quelque instinct précoce du sexe, le même châtiment reçu de son frère, ne m'eut point du tout, parut plaisant."[181]

As flagellation is practised by striking the skin with a rod formed of twigs, until the heat and redness become more intense, so if the twigs be replaced by fresh nettles, the operation will become,—urtication.

The employment of urtication is of great antiquity, for Celsus as well as Aretæus mentions the use of it, it being in those times, a popular remedy. That the Romans had frequent recourse to it in order to arouse the sexual appetite, is proved by the following passage from Petronius Arbiter, which for obvious reasons, we shall content ourselves with giving in the original only. "Oenothea semiebria ad me respiciens;—Perficienda sunt, inquit, mysteria ut recipas nervos.

"Simulque profert scorteum fascinum quod, ut olio et minuto pipere, atque urticæ trito circumdedit semine, paulatim cpit inserere ano meo. Hoc crudelissima anus spargit subinde femina mea Nasturcii[182] succum cum abrotono miscet, perfusis que inguinibus meis, viridis urticæ fascem comprehendit omnes que infra umbilicum cpit lenta manu cædere."[183]

Menghus Faventinus assures us that nettles have "une propriété merveilleuse pour allonger, tendre, grossir et ériger le membre viril, qui, par une parsimonie de la nature, feroit craindre la stérilité."[184]

Urtication appears to have been well known in France during the time of Rabelais, who alluding to this mode of procuring the vigour necessary for the amorous conflict, says, "se frotter le cul au panicaut (a species of thistle) vrai moyen d'avoir au cul passion."

Une femme en mélancholie Pour faute d'occupation, Frottez moi le cul d'ortie Elle aura au cul passion.[185]

The irritation caused by nettles produces effects analogous to those which are observed in persons afflicted with the itch, the ring-worm and leprosy. The lubricity of those unfortunates is sometimes uncontrolable; they suffer violent priapisms, which are followed by ejaculation, whenever a severe itching forces them to scratch themselves with a kind of furor or madness.

"In a medical point of view," observes Dr. Milligen, "urtication, or stinging with nettles, is a practice not sufficiently appreciated. In many instances, especially in cases of paralysis it is more efficacious than blistering or stimulating frictions. Its effects, though perhaps less permanent, are general and diffused over the limb. This process has been found effectual in restoring heat to the lower extremities, and a case of obstinate lethargy was cured by Corvisart by a repeated urtication of the whole body. During the action of the stimulus, the patient, who was a young man, would open his eyes and laugh, but then sink again into a profound sleep. In three weeks, however, his perfect cure was effected."[186]

In 1783, Dr. James Graham, an humble imitator of the celebrated Cagliostro, commenced giving his sanatary lectures, which he illustrated by the dazzling presence of his Goddess of Health, a character which, for a short time, was sustained by Emma Harte, afterwards the celebrated Lady Hamilton, wife of Sir William Hamilton, English Ambassador at the Court of Naples, and the chère amie of the immortal Nelson.

After describing various aphrodisiacal remedies, the lecturer thus proceeds: "But, gentlemen, if all the above means and methods, which I have thus faithfully, ingenuously, and with the frankest and most unreserved liberality, recommended, fail, suffer me, with great cordiality, and assurance of success, to recommend my celestial, or medico, magnetico, musico, electrical bed, which I have, with so much study and at so vast an expense, constructed, not alone to insure the removal of barrenness, when conception is at all in the nature of things possible, but likewise to improve, exalt, and invigorate the bodily, and through them, the mental faculties of the human species. This bed, whose seemingly magical influences are now celebrated from pole to pole and from the rising to the setting sun! is indeed an unique in science! and unquestionably the first and the only one that ever was mentioned, erected, or even, perhaps, thought of, in the world; and I will now conclude the lecture with giving you a slight descriptive sketch of the structure of the bed, and the nature of those influences with which it glows—which it breathes forth, and with which it animates, regenerates, and transports those happy, happy persons who have the honour and the paradisiacal blessedness of reposing on it.

"The Grand Celestial State Bed! then, gentlemen, which is twelve feet long by nine wide, is supported by forty pillars of brilliant glass, of great strength and of the most exquisite workmanship, in regard to shape, cutting, and engravings; sweetly delicate and richly variegated colours, and the most brilliant polish! They are, moreover, invisibly incrusted with a certain transparent varnish in order to render the insulation still more complete; and that otherwise, properly assisted, we may have, in even the most unfavourable weather, abundance of the electrical fire.

"The sublime, the magnificent, and, I may say, the super-celestial dome of the bed, which contains the odoriferous, balmy, and ethereal spices, odours, and essences, and which is the grand magazine or reservoir of those vivifying and invigorating influences which are exhaled and dispersed by the breathing of the music, and by the attenuating, repelling, and accelerating force of the electrical fire,—is very curiously inlaid or wholly covered on the under side with brilliant plates of looking-glass, so disposed as to reflect the various attractive charms of the happy recumbent couple, in the most flattering, most agreeable and most enchanting style.

"On the top or summit of the dome, are placed, in the most loving attitudes, two exquisite figures, representing the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, with a fine figure of Hymen behind, and over them, with his torch flaming with electrical fire in one hand and, with the other, supporting a celestial crown, sparkling, likewise, with the effulgent fire over a pair of real living turtle-doves, who, on a little bed of roses, coo and bill under the super-animating impulses of the genial fire! The other elegant groups of figures which sport on the top of the dome—the Cupids, the Loves, and the Graces!—besides festoons of the freshest and most beautiful flowers, have each of them musical instruments in their hands, which by the exquisite and most expensive mechanism, are made to breathe forth sounds corresponding with the appearance of the several instruments,—flutes, guitars, violins, clarionets, trumpets, horns, oboes, kettle-drums, &c. On the posts or pillars, too, which support the grand dome are groups of figures, musical instruments, organ-pipes, &c., which, in sweet concert with the other instruments, at the commencement of the tender dalliance of the happy pair, breathe forth celestial sounds! lulling them in visions of elysian joys! opening new sources of pleasure, and "untwisting all the chains which tie the hidden soul of harmony!" At the head of the bed, in the full centre front, appears, sparkling with electrical fire, through a glory of burnished and effulgent gold, the great, first, ever-operating commandment, BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, AND REPLENISH THE EARTH! under this is a most elegant and sweet-toned organ, in the front of which is a fine landscape of moving figures on the earth, birds flying, swans, &c., gliding on the waters, a fine procession, too, is seen, village nymphs strewing flowers before priests, brides, bridegrooms, and their attendants, who, all entering into the temple of Hymen, disappear from the delightful eye. The painting and embellishment of this front are most masterly, and reflect the highest honour on the artists by whom they were executed; and the whole view is terminated with fountains, waterfalls, shepherds, shepherdesses, and other peasants, as pastoral sports and rural employment, and by a little church, the dial of which points out truly and distinctly the hour.

"In the celestial bed no feather bed is employed; sometimes mattresses filled with sweet new wheat or cut straw, with the grain in the ears, and mingled with balm, rose leaves, lavender flowers, and oriental spices, and, at other times, springy hair mattresses are used. Neither will you find upon the celestial bed linen sheets; our sheets are of the richest and softest silk or satin; of various colours suited to the complexion of the lady who is to repose on them. Pale green, for example, rose colour, sky blue, black, white, purple, azure, mazarin blue, &c., and they are sweetly perfumed in the oriental manner, with otto and odour of roses, jessamine, tuberose, rich gums, fragrant balsams, oriental spices, &c.; in short, everything is done to assist the ethereal, magnetic, musical and electric influences, and to make the lady look as lovely as possible in the eyes of her husband and he, in hers. But to return, in order that I might have for the important purposes, the strongest and most springy hair, I procured, at a vast expense, the tails of English stallions, which when twisted, baked and then untwisted and properly prepared, is elastic to the highest degree.

"But the chief elastic principle of my celestial bed is produced by artificial loadstones. About fifteen hundred pounds' weight of artificial and compound magnets are so disposed and arranged as to be continually pouring forth in an ever-flowing circle inconceivable and irrestibly powerful tides of the magnetic effluxion, which is well known to have a very strong affinity with the electric fire.

"Such is a slight and inadequate sketch of the grand celestial bed, which, being thus completely insulated,—highly saturated with the most genial floods or electrical fire!—fully impregnated moreover, with the balmy vivifying effluvia of restorative balsamic medicines and of soft, fragrant, oriental gums, balsams and quintescence, and pervaded at the same times with full springing tides of the invigorating influences of music and magnets both real and artificial, gives such elastic vigour to the nerves, on the one hand, of the male, and on the other, such retentive firmness to the female; and, moreover, all the faculties of the soul being so fully expanded, and so highly illuminated, that it is impossible, in the nature of things, but that strong, beautiful, brilliant, nay, double-distilled children, if I may use the expression, must infallibly be begotten."

A digression may, perhaps, be here pardonable, in order to give some notice of the latter and last days of the beautiful, highly accomplished and fascinating woman mentioned above.

She had been presented to Nelson by her husband, who had previously told her that he was about to introduce her to a little thread-paper of a man, who could not boast of being very handsome, but who would become, some day, one of the greatest men that England ever produced. After the battle of the Nile he again visited Naples, and was now little better than a perfect wreck. At Calvi, in 1794, he had lost an eye. At Teneriffe his right arm was shattered and amputated close to the shoulder. At the battle of the Nile he was severely wounded in the head. Incessant anxiety and watchfulness for his country's honour and welfare had blanched his brow, and shattered the "little thread-paper of a man" at the outset, till, on his return in triumph to his mistress, he seemed to be on the verge of an early grave.

Yet she proved herself a true woman, if an erring one, in her reception of the man she loved, and unhesitatingly and unequivocally forsook her all, to attend upon and worship him.

Not far from Merton turnpike stood the house of Nelson and his mistress. It was left with all its liabilities to Lady Hamilton, but she was obliged to take a hasty departure, and, harassed by creditors, in sickness of heart and without funds, the unhappy woman escaped to Calais.

Now for the sad, sad finale. From the portal of a house, as cheerless and dreary as can be imagined, in the month of January, with a black silk petticoat stretched on a white curtain thrown over her coffin for a pall, and an half-day Irish dragoon to act as chaplain over the grave, which was in a timber-yard, were the remains of Nelson's much-adored friend removed to their final resting place, under the escort of a sergent de ville.

She died without the common necessaries of life, and was buried at the expense of the town, notwithstanding Nelson's last words, "Blackwood, take care of my poor Lady Hamilton!"

"Whatever the errors of Lady Hamilton may have been," says Doran, "let us not forget that without her aid, as Nelson said, the battle of the Nile would never have been fought, and that in spite of her sacrifices and services, England left her to starve, because the government was too virtuous to acknowledge the benefits rendered to her country by a lady with too loose a zone."

The remarks of honest old Burton[187] upon Aphrodisiacs, though quaint, are so judicious and pertinent, that we cannot better conclude this part of our essay than by quoting them:—

"The last battering engines," says he, "are philters, amulets, charms, images, and such unlawful meanes: if they cannot prevail of themselves by the help of bawds, panders, and their adherents, they will fly for succour to the devil himself. I know there be those that denye the devil can do any such thing, and that there is no other fascination than that which comes by the eyes. It was given out, of old, that a Thessalian wench had bewitched King Philip to dote on her, and by philters enforced his love, but when Olympia, his queen, saw the maid of an excellent beauty well brought up and qualified: these, quoth she, were the philters which enveagled King Philip, these the true charms as Henry to Rosamond."[188]

"One accent from thy lips the blood more warmes Than all their philters, exorcismes, and charms."

With that alone Lucretia brags, in Aretine, she could do more than all philosophers, astrologers, alychmists, necromancers, witches, and the rest of the crew. As for herbs and philters I could never skill of them. The sole philter I ever used was kissing and embracing, by which alone I made men rave like beasts, stupefied and compelled them to worship me like an idol.[189]



ANTI-APHRODISIACS.

The means best calculated to produce effects contrary to those just treated of are of several kinds, but such as are derived from hygiene are entitled to be considered as the most powerful. Previously, however, to describing the medicinal substances that may be efficaciously employed in moderating, or rather checking, too violent a propensity to venery, some notice must be taken of the diet adapted to insure such a result.

The use of milk, vegetables, such as lettuce, water-purslain, cucumbers, &c., and especially of fruit in which the acid principle predominates, slackens the movement of the heart and of the sanguineous system; it diminishes the animal heat, the chief source of which is in the activity of the circulation; it produces a feeling of tranquillity and of coolness; the respiration being more slow, occasions the absorption of a less quantity of oxygen, add to which, as a less quantity of reparative materials is contained in this description of aliments, there result a less active nutrition, the loss of embonpoint and the complete prostration of every principle of irritability; in short, it is of all diets the one least capable of furnishing fuel to the passions. For common drink mere water, and, if the impulse of passion should increase, a small quantify of nitre, vinegar, or vitrolic acid, may, occasionally be added to the water to make it more cooling.

Other means conducive to the same end are a laborious life, much bodily exercise, little sleep, and a spare diet, so that the fluids may be more easily conducted to other parts, and that there may not be produced a greater quantity than is requisite for the support of the body. Equally valuable

"When there's a young and sweating devil That commonly rebels,"

will be found what Shakespeare recommends—

"A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer, Much castigation, exercise devout."[190]

Should the desire of committing excesses rise to any height, immediate recourse must be had to some serious and mind-absorbing occupation, less nutritious food and drink should be taken, all dishes peculiarly stimulating to the palate avoided, as well as the use of wine and other spirituous liquors.

A cool regimen in every respect was particularly insisted upon by the ancients: hence Plato and Aristotle recommended the custom of going barefoot as a means of checking the stimulus to carnal desire, a suggestion which appears to have been acted upon by some of the monkish orders. The cold bath was considered equally efficacious, while some, among whom may be reckoned Pliny and Galen, advised thin sheets of lead to be worn on the calves of the legs and near the kidneys.

The first and most important of the hygienic means consists in shunning every species of excitement and in having little or no communication with the sex, and the earlier such restraint is imposed, the better. "He that is chaste and continent, not to impair his strength, or terrified by contagion, will hardly be heroically virtuous. Adjourn not that virtue until those years when Cato could lend out his wife, and impotent satyrs write satires against lust—but be chaste in thy flaming days, when Alexander dared not trust his eyes upon the fair sisters of Darius, and when so many men think that there is no other way than that of Origen."[191][192]

The next means is that of carefully abstaining from the perusal of all publications calculated to inflame the passions, by which publications are meant, not obscene books only. With respect to these, indeed, a great error obtains, for the persons most anxious to peruse them are, for the most part, old, worn-out debauchees, men whose generative powers are, comparatively, feeble, if not altogether destroyed, and who, unfortunately for themselves, require this unnatural and detestable kind of stimulus, while, on the contrary, young men and those in middle life, who had not drawn too largely upon their constitution, and for whom the allurements of nature are themselves a sufficient provocative, regard such publications with horror and disgust. It is not, therefore, we repeat, works of this description which we allude to, but those the perusal of which is more dangerous during the period of the passions—novels, more especially such as, under the pretext of describing the working of the human heart, draw the most seducing and inflammatory pictures of illicit love, and throw the veil of sentimental philosophy over the orgies of debauchery and licentiousness. Nothing is more perilous to youth, especially of the female sex, than this description of books. Their style is chaste, not one word is found that can offend the ear, while the mind of the unsuspecting reader is often tainted and corrupted by the most impure ideas and descriptions clothed in the most elegant phraseology. How admirably does Voltaire stigmatise this attention to a mere superficial (if the epitaph be allowed) purity! "Plus," says he "les murs sont dépravés, plus les expressions deviennent mésurées: on croit de gagner en langage ce qu'on a perdu en vertu. La pudeur s'est enfuite des curs et s'est refugiée sur les lèvres."

There are two kinds of study particularly adapted to preserve the mind and the affections from the assaults of vice and libidinousness. The first of these is the Mathematics, whose efficacy in this respect has been proved by frequent experience. The Venetian lady mentioned by Rousseau in his "Confessions" was not ignorant of this their power, when, seeing the singular effect which her charms had produced upon the, as yet, youthful philosopher, said to him, "Gianetto, lascia le donne e studia la matimatica." "James, give up the ladies, and apply yourself to mathematics." It will, indeed, be found that, in all ages, mathematicians have been but little disposed or addicted to love, and the most celebrated among them, Sir Isaac Newton, is reputed to have lived without ever having had sexual intercourse. The intense mental application required by philosophical abstraction forcibly determines the nervous fluid towards the intellectual organs, and hinders it from being directed towards those of reproduction.

After the study of the Mathematics comes that of Natural History, which will be found to be almost equally beneficial, requiring as it does, the unremitting attention of the student, his perambulation of the open country, and the personal observation of all animated objects.

This peculiar influence of the above-mentioned studies ought particularly to engage the attention of persons who superintend the education of youth; there being no doubt that the effervescence of youthful passions may, to a great extent, be allayed by directing the juvenile mind to either of those studies, according as the constitution exhibits greater or less ardour and precocity. Sometimes, however, there are found idiosyncrasies which bid defiance to remedies of this description, but, nevertheless, yield to the force of medicine: of such, the following is an instance:

"A man, by profession a musician, of an athletic figure and sanguine complexion, with red hair, and a very warm temperament, was so tormented with erotic desires that the venereal act, repeated several times in the course of a few hours, failed to satisfy him. Disgusted with himself, and fearing, as a religious man, the punishment with which concupiscence is threatened in the Gospel, he applied to a medical practitioner, who prescribed bleeding and the use of sedatives and refrigerants, together with a light diet. Having found no relief from this course of treatment, he was then recommended to have recourse to wedlock, and, in consequence, married a robust and healthy young woman, the daughter of a farmer. At first, the change appeared to benefit him, but, in a short time, he tired his wife out by his excessive lubricity, and relapsed into his former satyriasis. His medical friend now recommended frequent fasting, together with prayer, but these also failing of effect, the unhappy man proposed to submit to castration, an operation which was judged to be highly improper, considering the great risks the patient must necessarily incur. The latter, however, still persisted that his wish should be complied with, when, fortunately, a case having occurred in Paris, in which a person afflicted with nephritic pains occasioned by the presence of a calculus, was cured by a preparation of nitre, at the expense, however, of being for ever incapacitated for the pleasures of love, the hint was taken, and doses of nitre dissolved in aqua nymphæ were given, night and morning, during the space of eight days, and with such success that, at the end of that time, he could scarcely satisfy the moderate claims of his wife."[193]

Some physicians place great confidence in the medicines called refrigerants. The most favourite of these are infusions from the leaves or flowers of the white water-lily (nymphea alba), sorrel, lettuce, perhaps also from mallows, violets, and endive (cichorium), oily seeds, and waters distilled from lettuce, water lily, cucumbers, purslain, and endives. In equal esteem are the syrups of orgeat, lemons, and vinegar, to which may be added cherry-laurel water, when given in proper and gradually-increasing doses. Hemlock, camphor, and agnus-castus, have likewise been much recommended as moderators of the sexual appetite.

According to Pliny,[194] the nymphea alba was considered so powerful that these who take it for twelve days successively will then find themselves incapable of propagating their species, and if it be used for forty days, the amorous propensity will be entirely extinguished.

With respect to hemlock, it is too dangerous a medicine to repose confidence in.

The ancients had a high opinion of camphor, a reputation which this drug preserved until, comparatively, a late period, for Scaliger informs that, in the 17th century, monks were compelled to smell and masticate it for the purpose of extinguishing concupiscence; and it was a favourite maxim of the medical school of Salernum[195] that—

"Camphora per nares castrat odore mares."

Camphor if smell'd A man will geld.

This fatal property, however, has been denied by modern medical authorities, and apparently with reason, if the fact be true that such workmen as are employed in extracting this useful vegetable product, and who may be said to live constantly in a highly camphorated atmosphere, do not find themselves in the leash degree incapacitated for gratifying the calls of l'amour physique.

There is no doubt, on the other hand, that camphor has been successfully employed in cases of nymphomania, and that several medical writers have asserted its efficacy in neutralising the properties of cantharides, adducing instances which would appear to prove its sedative power: the following one is related by Groenvelt:—[196]

A young man who had taken a large dose of cantharides in some wine, felt at first, a sort of violent itching, accompanied by great irritation in the bladder, and soon after he suffered greatly from extreme heat, together with an intolerable strangury. Bleeding, emulsions, injections, and opium preparations afforded not the slightest relief. Groenvelt prescribed two scruples of camphor in two boluses. The first dose partly mitigated the pains, and the second one removed them entirely. The remedies which were first administered had, no doubt, weakened the inflammation, and the strangury being no longer kept up by the spasmodic state of the urinary apparatus, camphor sufficed to effect a cure. Burton asserts the value of camphor as an anti-aphrodisiac, and says that when fastened to the parts of generation, or carried in the breeches, it renders the virile member flaccid.

Agnus castus, so called from the down on its surface resembling that upon the skin of a lamb, and from its supposed anti-aphrodisiacal qualities, was in great repute among the Athenians, whose women, during the celebration of the Thesmophoria, or feasts and sacrifices in honour of Ceres or Thesmophoria, the legislatress, abstained for some days from all the pleasures of love, separating themselves entirely for that time from the men. It was also usual with them during the solemnities to strew their beds with agnus castus, fleabane, and other herbs as were supposed to have the power of expelling amorous inclinations. Arnaud de Villeneuve[197] exaggerates, almost to a ridiculous degree, the virtue of the agnus castus, asserting as he does, that the surest way to preserve chastity, is to carry about the person, a knife with a handle made of its wood. It was also, and perhaps is still, much used by the monks, who made an emulsion of its seeds steeped in Nenuphar water, and of which they daily drank a portion, wearing at the same time round their loins a girdle made of its branches. Lettuce has also the reputation of being anti-aphrodisiacal. Lobel instances the case of an English nobleman who had long been desirous of having an heir to his estates, but all in vain. Being, however, at length advised to discontinue eating lettuces, of which he was particularly fond, his wishes were gratified by his being blessed with a numerous offspring.

The desire for coition was also supposed to be diminished by drinking a decoction of the pounded leaves of the willow. Vervain, dried coriander, and also mustard, drunk in a fluid state, are also said to prevent the erection of the penis. Alexander Benedictus declares that a topaz having been previously rubbed against the right testicle of a wolf, then steeped in oil or in rose water and worn as a ring, induces a disgust for venereal pleasures, as does also, if we may credit the same sapient physiologist, a powder made of dried frog. The two following prescriptions are also said to be of great efficacy:—

"Da verbena in potu, et non erigitur virga sex diebus. Utere menthâ siccâ cum aceto: genitalia illinita succo hyoscyami aut cicutæ coitûs appetitum sedant."

It has even been asserted that coffee possesses the same property. In the year 1695 it was maintained, in a thesis at the Ecole de Médicine at Paris, that the daily use of coffee deprived both man and woman of the generative power. M. Hecquet[198] relates the following anecdote as a proof of such effect:—

A Queen of Persia seeing some grooms using all their efforts to throw a horse upon the ground, enquired the reason of the trouble they were thus taking. Her attendants gave her to understand as delicately as they could, that it was far the purpose of castrating him.

"How unnecessary is so much trouble," said her majesty, "they have only to give him coffee, and their object will be fully and easily attained."[199]

Most probably the queen spoke from her own experience of its anti-aphrodisiacal effects upon her royal consort.

There are some diseases which are considered as anti-aphrodisiacal, on account of the decided aversion which the patient who is afflicted with them feels for the pleasures of the sexual union. Thus a species of epidemic leprosy is common among the Cossacks of the Jaik, which is attended by pains in the joints and a disgust for copulation, a disgust the more extraordinary, not only because exanthematous diseases, in general excite a desire for the above act, but also inasmuch as this malady, in particular usually attacks persons in the prime of their youth. Another disease analogous to the one just mentioned, the Plica-Polonica, rages, during the autumnal season, in Poland, Lithuania, and Tartary. It is said to have been introduced into the first of these countries by the Tartars, who had it originally from India. One of the most singular phenomena attending this disorder, and which evidently proves the close sympathy existing between the head and the organs of generation, is that when the patient is bald, the Plica not unfrequently fastens upon the sexual parts, and acquires such a length as to descend below the calves of the legs. The mode of treatment, that of mercury and sudorifics, proves the mucous character of the disorder, and, consequently, accounts for its well known tendency to strike the whole animal economy with that prostration of strength which produces a total indifference to the sex.

Continual exercise on horseback was considered by Hippocrates[200] as anti-aphrodisiacal and Van Sweiten commenting upon that opinion, justly observes that the continual joltings caused by so violent an exercise, added to the compression produced upon the parts of generation by the weight of the body, was by no means unlikely to produce a focal relaxation of those organs to such an extent as to prevent erection altogether.

If whatever opposes an obstacle to the gratification of the sexual appetite may be considered as having a place among the anti-aphrodisiacs, certain mechanical processes may be ranked as such. Of these, fibulation, from the Latin word fibula (a buckle or ring) was the very reverse of circumcision, since the operation consisted in drawing the prepuce over the glans, and preventing its return, by the insertion of the ring.[201]

The Fibula (buckle) is so called, because it serves to fix together and to re-unite parts which are separated. It was, formerly a surgical instrument which, besides the use now particularly in question, served also to keep closed the lips of any extensive wounds. It is mentioned as being so applied by Oribuse,[202] and by Scribonius Largus.[203] Employed, therefore, as it was for various uses, the fibula appears to have different shapes, now but little known to us. Rhodius[204] has treated of all those mentioned in the writings of antiquity.

Meinsius thinks that the custom of infibulating may be traced back to the time of the siege of Troy, for the singer Demodocus, who was left with Clytemnestra by Agamemnon,[205] appears to that critic, to have been a eunuch, or, at least, to here been infibulated.[206]

Among the ancients, as well as among many modern nations, the laws of chastity and the restraints of honour appeared scarcely sufficient to hinder the sexes from uniting, in spite of all the obstacles opposed by a vigilant watch and strict seclusion.[207] Indeed, what Roman virgin could entertain very strict ideas of modesty while she saw the goddess of love honoured in the temple, or the amours of Venus and Mars celebrated, while the poor cuckolded Vulcan, after seizing the amorous couple in his net, way only thereby exposed to the ridicule of the Olympic Divinities. There can be little doubt but that excess of this description bastardized and corrupted the ancient Greeks and Romans, and that recourse was necessarily had to the fibula when the deities themselves set the example. Of what use, indeed, could be the moral lessons of a Plato or a Socrates, even when enforced by infibulation, if vice was thus sanctioned by divine example? The only aim of such a state of things was to vanquish obstacles. The art of eluding nature was studied, marriage was despised, notwithstanding the edicts of Augustus against bachelors; the depopulated republic wallowed in the most abandoned lust, and, as a natural consequence, the individual members of it became corrupted and enervated from their very infancy.

The infibulation of boys, sometimes on account of their voice, and not unfrequently, to prevent masturbation, was performed by having the prepuce drawn over the glans; it was then pierced, and a thick thread was passed through it, remaining there until the cicatrizing of the hole; when that took place, a rather large ring was then substituted, which was not removed but with the permission of the party ordering the operation.[208] The Romans infibulated their singers in order to preserve their voice:

"Si gaudet cantu; nullius fibula durat Vocem vendentis prætoribus."[209]

"But should the dame in music take delight, The public singer is disabled quite; In vain the prætor guards him all he can, She slips the buckle (fibula) and enjoys her man."

They even subjected to the same operation most of their actors:

"Solvitur his magno comdi fibula. Sunt, quæ Chrysogonum cantare vetent."[210]

"Take from Chrysogonus the power to sing, Loose, at vast prices, the comedian's ring."

"Dic mihi, simpliciter, comdis et cithardis, Fibula, quod præstat?... carius ut futuunt."[211]

"Tell me, clasp! frankly, of what advantage are you to actresses and lute-players? To enhance their favours."

"Menophili, penem tam grandis fibula vestit Ut sit comdis omnibus, una satis Hunc ego credideram (nam sæpe lavamur in unum) Sollicitum voci parcere, Flacce, suæ; Dum ludit media populo spectante palæstra, Delapsa est misero, fibula; verpus erat."[212]

"Una si gran fibula copre il membro di Menofila, che sola basterebbe a tutti i commenianti. Io O Flacco, avevo creduto (imperocche si siamo sovente lavati insiême) che esso sollecito avesse cura delle sua voce; lotta in mezzo la palestra a vista del popolo, la fibula cascó sventvrato; era un' inciso."

Nor were dancers and gladiators exempted from the same operation, especially the latter, in order that they might preserve all the vigour required in their horrible and degrading occupation.

The best description of the fibula is that given by Holiday: "The fibula," says he, "does not strictly signifie a button, but also a buckle or clasp, or such like stay. In this place, the poet expresses by it the instrument of servilitie applied to those that were employed to sing upon the stage; the Prætor who set forth playes for the delight of the people, buying youths for that purpose, and that they might not, by lust, spoil their voice, their overseers closed their shame with a case of metal having a sharp spike of the same metal passing by the side of it, and sometimes used one of another form; or by a nearer crueltie, they thrust a brazen or silver wire thought that part which the Jew did lose in circumcision.

"The form of the first, and also another fashion, the curious reader may here see (being without any immodestie) as they are represented by Pignerius, de servis, p. 82. But whatsoever the fashion or invention was, the trust was but fond that was committed to them, seeing that the art of lust and gold could make them as vain as the Italian engines of jealousy in this day. Thus, 'O Lentulus,' says the poet, speaking figuratively to some nobleman, 'it is that thou art married; but it is some musician's or fencer's bastard that is born under thy lordly canopie.'"[213]



Winkleman furnishes us with a description of an infibulated musician,[214] it being a small bronze statue representing a naked deformed individual, as thin as a skeleton, and carrying a ring in his enormi mentula. Martial, who laughs at everything, speaks of these singers sometimes breaking their ring, and says that it becomes necessary to send them to the fibula-makers in order to have the damage repaired:[215]

"Et cujus refibulavit turgidum, faber, penem, Il di cui turgido membro abbia fabro fibbiato."

The practice of infibulation was very common in India, from religious motives. As a proof of their sanctity, many of the Santons, or Mohammedan saints, as well as other devout persons, bonzes, fakirs, and the like, devoted themselves to perpetual virginity. Whether it was with the intention of placing themselves beyond the possibility of breaking their vow, or of giving evidence of their constancy, certain it is that they loaded their prepuce with an enormous fibula, or ring; and, in their warm climate, where nudity does not shock ideas of propriety or decency, devout women not unfrequently repaired to these soi-disant saints, to admire and venerate such efforts of virtue and self-denial; they are even reported to have knelt down, and, in that humiliating posture, to have kissed the preputial ring, no doubt with the vain hope of thereby obtaining indulgences. In some places, these martyrs fasten their fibula with a lock, the key which they deposit with the magistrate of the town or village. But, nature insisting upon her rights, is often too strong for this self-violence, nor can desire, or the not-to-be-mistaken symptom of it, be opposed, or even prevented, from being gratified; and since the lock, which obstructs the extremity of the prepuce only, cannot hinder a kind of erection, nor, indeed, of effusion of the seminal fluid, it cannot do more than oppose the introduction of the male organ into the receptacle destined for it.

Another description of fakirs were formerly to be seen in India, and, especially, in its southern peninsula, whose custom it was to traverse the country in a state of nudity, and who had been rendered impotent by the following regimen. The children destined for this penitential state are taken away from their parents at the age of six or seven years, and made to eat, daily, a quantity of the young leaves of a tree called Mairkousie. At first, the dose given them is not larger than a filbert. This regimen must be persisted in until the party reaches the age of five-and-twenty years, the dose being increased till, at the maximum, it is as large as a duck's egg. During all this time, the devotee is subjected to no other regimen, except a light purge, once in six months, by means of Kadoukaie, or the black mirobolan. Although rendered completely impotent by this mode of treatment, so far from their physical strength and beauty of form being diminished or deteriorated thereby, they are, on the contrary, improved by it; the enjoyment of constant good health is likewise almost an invariable consequence.

Infibulation is not confined to the male sex exclusively, for it is practised on girls and women in India, Persia, and the East, generally, and most commonly consists in joining together the female sexual organ, or closing the labia of the vagina by a suture made with waxed thread, a small aperture being left for the egress of the urine and the menstrua.

Linschet witnessed the operation at Pegu, as did also Schultz, Brown saw it performed, at Darfour, on females from eleven to twelve years of age.[216] At the time of marriage, a cut of the bistouri dissevers the parts which have been closed by the effects of the suture. Sometimes jealousy contents itself by passing a ring through the parts. Women, as well as girls, are subjected to this disgusting operation, the only difference being that the ring of the latter cannot be removed, while that of the former has a kind of lock, the key of which is in the husband's possession. Pallas informs us that the beautiful nation of the Tcherkesses, or Circassians carefully preserve the virginity of their girls by means of a leathern girdle, or rather corslet made of skin, and sewn immediately upon the naked body. The husband alone has the right of severing this corslet, which he does, on the nuptial night.

When the violation of virgin chastity and conjugal fidelity became more frequent, fathers and husbands had recourse, even in Europe, to a mechanical contrivance for the purpose of preserving intact the honour of the family. This was a kind of padlock, which shut up all access to the seat of voluptuousness. The invention is attributed to one Francesco di Carrera, an imperial judge of Padua, who lived about the close of the 15th century. The machine itself was called the Girdle of Chastity. Francesco's acts of cruelty brought him to the scaffold, where he was strangled in 1405, by a decree of the Senate of Venice. One of the principal accusations brought against him was the employment of the Girdle of Chastity, for his mistresses, and it is said by Misson[217] that a box filled with these articles was for a long time preserved in the palace of St. Mark, at Venice. Rabelais speaks of these girdles, which he calls Ceintures á la Bergamasque, "Nay," says he, Pantagruel, "may that Nick in the dark cellar, who hath no white in his eye, carry me quiet away with him, if, in that case, whenever I go abroad from the palace of my domestic residence, I do not, with as much circumspection as they use to ring mares in our country, to keep them from being saillied by stoned horses, clap a Bergamesco lock upon my wife." Brantome has the following notice of these chastity preservers. "Des temps du roi Henri il yeut un certain Quinquallier qui apporte une douzaine de certains engins à la foire de St. Germain pour brider le cas des femmes. Ces sortes de cadenas estoient en usage à Venise dès devant l'année 1522, estoient faites de fer et centuroient comme une ceinture, et venoient à se prendre par le bas, et se fermer à clef, si subtilement faites, qu'il n'estoit pas possible que la femme en estant bridée und fois, s'en peust jamais prévaloir pour ce doux plaisir, n'ayant que quelques petits trous menus pour servir à pisser."[218]

An endeavour was made to introduce these Bernasco padlocks into France during the reign of Henry II., and a shop was opened by an Italian at the fair of St. Germain, where they were publicly sold, and in such numbers, that the French gallants, becoming alarmed, threatened to throw the vendor into the Seine, if he did not pack up his merchandise and decamp, which he immediately did for fear that the menace might be put in execution.

Voltaire describes the Cadenas as originating with Pluto, who, jealous of his wife Proserpine, was advised:

Qu'un cadenas, de la structure nouvelle Fut le garant de sa fidélité, A la vertu par la force asservie, Plus ne sera l'amant favorisé. En un moment, feux, enclumes, fourneaux Sont préparés aux gouffres infernaux; Tisiphone, de ces lieux, serrurière, Au cadenas met la main, la première, Elle l'achève et des mains de Pluton Proserpine reçut ce triste don, Or ce secret aux enfers inventé Chez les humains tôt après fut porté Et depuis ce temps dans Venise et dans Rome Il n'est pédant, bourgeois, ou gentilhomme Qui pour garder l'honneur de sa maison De cadenas n'ait sa provision.[219]

This sage advice, a loud applause From all the damned assembly draws; And straight, by order of the State, Was registered on brass by fate; That moment, in the shades below, They anvils beat and bellows blow. Tisiphoned, the blacksmith's trade Well understood; the locks she made: Proserpina, from Pluto's hand Receiving, wore it by command. This lock, which hell could frame alone, Soon to the human race was known; In Venice, Rome, and all about it, No gentlemen or cit's without it.[220]

We shall close this our third essay with the amusing summary of anti-aphrodisiacal remedies, as given by Rabelais.

"You say," said the physician Rondibilis to Panurge, "that you feel in you the pricking stings of sensuality, by which you are stirred up to venery. I find in our faculty of medicine, and we have founded our opinion therein upon the deliberate resolution and final decision of the ancient Platonics, that carnal concupiscence is cooled and quelled five several ways:—

"Firstly. By the means of wine. I shall easily believe that quoth Friar John, for when I am well whittled with the juice of the grape, I care for nothing else, so I may sleep. When I say, quoth Rondibilis, that wine abateth lust, my meaning is, wine immoderately taken; for by intemperance, proceeding from the excessive drinking of strong liquor, there is brought upon the body of such a swill-down bouser, a chillness in the blood, a slackening in the sinews, a dissipation of the generative seed, a numbness and hebetation of the senses, with a perversive wryness and convulsion of the muscles, all which are great lets and impediments to the act of generation. Hence it is that Bacchus, the god of bibbers, tipplers, and drunkards, is most commonly painted beardless and clad in a woman's habit, as a person altogether effeminate, or like a libbed eunuch. Wine, nevertheless, taken moderately worketh quite contrary effects, as is implied by the old proverb, which saith,—That Venus taketh cold, when not accompanied by Ceres and Bacchus.[221] This opinion is of great antiquity as appeareth by the testimony of Diodorus the Sicilian, and confirmed by Pausanias, and it is usually held among the Lampsacians, that Don Priapus was the son of Bacchus and Venus.

"Secondly. The fervency of lust is abated by certain drugs, plants herbs and roots, which make the taker cold, maleficiated, unfit for, and unable to perform the act of generation; as hath often been experimented by the water-lily, Heraclea, Agnus-Castus, willow-twigs, hemp-stalks, woodbine, honeysuckle, tamarisk, chastetree, mandrake, bennet keebugloss, the skin of a hippopotamus, and many other such, which, by convenient doses proportioned to the peccant humour and constitution of the patient, being duly and seasonably received within the body—what by their elementary virtues on the one side, and peculiar properties on the other, do either benumb, mortify and beclumpse with cold, the prolific semence, or scatter and disperse the spirits which ought to have gone along with, and conducted the sperm to the places destined and appointed for its reception,—or lastly, shut up, stop and obstruct the way, passages, and conduits, through which the seed should have expelled, evacuated, and ejected. We have, nevertheless, of those ingredients, which, being of a contrary operation, heat the blood, bind the nerves, unite the spirits, quicken the senses, strengthen the muscles, and thereby rouse up, provoke, excite and enable a man to the vigorous accomplishment of the feat of amorous dalliance. I have no need of those, quoth Panurge, God be thanked and you, my good master. Howsoever, I pray you, take no exception or offence at these my words; for what I have said was not out of any ill-will I did hear to you, the Lord, he knows.

"Thirdly. The ardour of lechery is very much subdued and mated by frequent labour and continual toiling. For by painful exercises and laborous working so great a dissolution is brought upon the whole body, that the blood which runneth alongst the channels of the vein thereof for the nourishment and alimentation of each of its members, had neither time, leisure, nor power to afford the seminal resudation or superfluity of the third concoction, which nature most carefully reserves for the conservation of the individual, whose preservation she more heedfully regardeth than the propagation of the species and the multiplication of human kind. Whence it is that Diana is said to be chaste, because she is never idle, but always busied about hunting. For the same reason was a camp, or leaguer of old called—Castrum,[222] as if they would have said—Castum; because the soldiers, wrestlers, runners, throwers of the bar, and other such like athletic champions, as are usually seen in a military circumvallation, do incessantly travail and turmoil, and are in a perpetual stir and agitation. To this purpose, also, Hippocrates writeth in his book, De Aere, Aqua et Locis:—That in his time there were people in Scythia as impotent as eunuchs in the discharge of a venerean exploit; because that, without any cessation, pause or respite, they were never from off horseback, or otherwise, assiduously employed in some troublesome and molesting drudgery.

"On the other part, in opposition and repugnancy hereto, the philosophers say, that idleness is the mother of luxury. When it was asked Ovid, why Ægisthus became an adulterer? he made no other answer than this, Because he was idle.[223] Who were able to rid the world of loitering and idleness might easily disappoint Cupid[224] of all his designes, aims, engines and devices and so disable and appal him, that his bow, quiver, and darts should from thenceforth be a mere needless load and burthen to him; for that it could not then lie in his power to strike or wound any of either sex with all the arms he had. He is not, I believe so expert an archer as that he can hit the cranes flying in the air, or yet the young stags skipping through the thicket, as the Parthians knew well how to do; that is to say, people moiling, stirring, and hurrying up and down, restless and without repose. He must have those hushed, still, quiet, lying at a stay, lither and full of ease, whom he is able to pierce with all his arrows. In conformation thereof, Theophrastus being asked on a time, What kind of beast or thing he judged a toyish, wanton love to be? he made answer, That it was a passion of idle and sluggish spirits.[224] From which pretty description of tickling-tricks, that of Diogenes, the Cynic, was not very discrepant when he defined lechery—The occupation of folk destitute of all other occupation. For this cause the Sicyonian sculptor Canachus,[225] being desirous to give us to understand that slowth drowsiness, negligence, and laziness, were the prime guardians and governesses of ribaldry, made the statue of Venus, not standing, as other stone-cutters had used to do, but sitting.

"Fourthly. The tickling pricks of incontinency are blunted by an eager study; for from thence proceedeth an incredible resolution of the spirits, that oftentimes there do not remain so many behind as may suffice to push and thrust forwards the generative resudation to the places thereto appropriated, and therewithal inflate the cavernous nerve, whose office is to ejaculate the moisture for the propagation of human progeny. Lest you should think it is not so, be pleased but to contemplate a little the form, fashion, and carriage of a man exceeding earnestly set upon some learned meditation and deeply plunged therein, and you shall see how all the arteries of his brains are stretched forth, and bent like the string of a cross-bow, the more promptly, dexterously and copiously to suppeditate, furnish and supply him with store of spirits, sufficient to replenish and fill up the ventricles, seats, tunnels, mansions, receptacles and cellules of common sense—of the imagination apprehension, and fancy—of the ratiocination, arguing, and resolution—as likewise, of the memory, recordation, and remembrance; and with great alacrity, nimbleness, and agility, to run, pass and course from one to the other, through those pipes, windings, and conduits, which to skilful anatomists are perceivable at the end of the wonderful net, where all the arteries close in a terminating point; which arteries taking their rise and origin from the left capsule of the heart, bring, through several circuits, ambages, and anfractuosities, the vital spirits, to subtilize and refine them in the ætherial purity of animal spirits. Nay, in such a studiously meditating, musing person, you may espy so extravagant raptures of one, as it were out of himself, that all his natural faculties for that time will seem to lie suspended from each their proper charge and office, and his exterior senses to be at a stand. In a word, you cannot choose than think, that he is by an extraordinary ecstasy quite transported out of what he was or should be; and that Socrates did not speak improperly when he said, That philosophy was nothing else but a meditation upon death. This possibly is the reason why Democritus[226] deprived himself of the sense of seeing, prizing, at a much lower rate, the loss of his sight, than the diminution of his contemplation which he had frequently found disturbed by the vagrant flying-out strayings of his unsettled and roving eyes.[227] Therefore is it that Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, tutoress and guardianess of such as are diligently studious and painfully industrious, is and hath been still accounted a virgin. The Muses upon the same consideration are esteemed perpetual maids: and the Graces, for the same reason, have been held to continue in a sempiternal pudicity.

"I remember to have read that Cupid,[227] on a time, being asked by his mother Venus, why he did not assault and set upon the Muses, his answer was, that he found them so fair, so neat, so wise, so learned, so modest, so discreet, so courteous, so virtuous, and so continually busied and employed,—one in the speculation of the stars,—another in the supputation of numbers,—the third in the dimension of geometrical quantities,—the fourth in the composition of heroic poems,—the fifth in the jovial interludes of a comic strain,—the sixth in the stately gravity of the tragic vein,—the seventh in the melodious disposition of musical airs,—the eighth in the completest manner of writing histories and books on all sorts of subjects, and—the ninth in the mysteries, secrets, and curiosities of all sciences, faculties, disciplines and arts whatsoever, whether liberal or mechanic,—that approaching near unto them he unbent his bow, shut his quiver, and extinguished his torch, through mere shame and fear that by mischance he might do them any hurt or prejudice. Which done, he thereafter put off the fillet wherewith his eyes were bound, to look them in the face, and to hear their melody and poetic odes. There took he the greatest pleasure in the world, that many times he was transported with their beauty and pretty behaviour, and charmed asleep by their harmony, so far was he from assaulting them or interrupting their studies. Under this article may be comprised what Hippocrates wrote in the afore-cited treatise concerning the Scythians, as also that in a book of his intituled, Of Breeding and Production, where he hath affirmed all such men to be unfit for generation as have their parotid arteries cut—whose situation is behind the ears—for the reason given already, when I was speaking of the resolution of the spirits, and of that spiritual blood, whereof the arteries are the sole and proper receptacles; and that likewise he doth maintain a large portion of the parastatic liquor to issue and descend from the brains and backbone.

"Fifthly. By the too frequent reiteration of the act of venery. There did I wait for you, quoth Panurge, and shall willingly apply it to myself, whilst any one that pleaseth may, for me, make use of any of the four preceding. That is the very same thing, quoth Friar John, which Father Scyllion,[228] Prior of St. Victor, at Marseilles, calleth maceration and taming of the flesh. I am of the same opinion, and so was the hermit of Saint Radegonde, a little above Chinon; for, quoth he, the hermits of Thebaïde can no way more aptly or expediently macerate and bring down the pride of their bodies, daunt and mortify their lecherous sensuality, or depress and overcome the stubbornness and rebellion of the flesh, than by dufling and fanfreluching five and twenty or thirty times a day."



FOOTNOTES

[1] For a representation of the Egyptian "Phallus" see Plate I., figures 1, 2, and 3. These are taken from the "Recueil d'Antiquités Egyptiennes" by the Comte De Caylus, who, speaking of the first of them, observes: "Cette figure représente le plus terrible Phallus qu'on ait vû, proportion gardée, sur aucun ouvrage. On n'ignore point la vénération que les Egyptiens avaient pour cet emblême, il est vrai; mais je doute que cette nation sage et peu outrée dans sa conduite eût consacré dans les premiers siécles, c'est a dire, avant le régne des Ptolemées, une pareille figure."

[2] Historia de los Incas. Cap. VI.

[3] In the church of St. Peter's at Rome, is kept, en secret, a large stone emblem of the creative power, of a very peculiar shape, on which are engraved [Greek: Zeus Sôtêr]. Only persons who have great interest can get a sight of it. Is it from this stone having some peculiar virtue that those preux chevaliers, the cardinals, keep it so closely? Perhaps they choose to monopolize the use of it? I never saw it, but I know that it was at St Peter's.—HIGGINS.

[4] See Plate II., figure 1. This figure of the Lingham presents a kind of Trinity, the vase represents Vishnu, from the middle of which rises a column rounded at the top representing Siva, and the whole rests upon a pedestal typifying Brahma. From the Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine, par M. Sonnerat, depuis 1774 jusqu'en 1781. Tom. I., p. 179.

[5] Voyage aux Indes et à la Chine, par Sonnerat, depuis 1774 jusqu'en 1781; Tom. I. liv. 2.

[6] See plate III., figures 1, 2, 3, and 4.

[7] Henry O'Brien, Round Towers of Ireland. London, 1834. Chapter viii.

[8] See Plate IV., figure 1.

[9] Samuel II., chap. vi., v. 20, 21, 22, 23.

[10] The indispensable and inseparable appendages to the male organ have thus been eulogized by Giov. Francesco Lazzarelli in his poem entitled, La Cicceide, p. 120.

LE PREROGATIVI DE'TESTICOLI.

Gran sostegni dei mondo, almi C ...... Del celeste Fattor, opre ingegnose; Da caricare i piccoli cannoni, Ond' armata va l'uom, Palle focose: Robusti, anchorè teneri Palloni, Con cui guiocan tra lor, mariti e spose; Del corpo uman spermatici Embrioni; De' venerei piacer fonti amorose; Magazzini vitali, ove Natura L'uman seme riposto, a' figli suoi D' assicurar la succession procura! etc.

[11] Genesis, chap. xxiv. v. 2, 3.

[12] Genesis, chap. xlvii. v. 29.

[13] Mémoires sur l'Egypte, publiés pendant les Campagne de Bonaparte, Partie, 2, p. 193.

[14] The Latin text of the law is as follows:—"Si mulier stuprata lege cum illo agere velit, membro virili sinistra prehenso et dextra reliquos sanctorum imposita, juret, super illas quod is per vim se, isto membro, vitiaverit."—Voyage dans le Département du Finisterre, Tom. iii., p. 233.

[15] Hunc locum tibi dedico consacroque, Priape, Quæ domus tua, Lampsaei est, quaque silva, Priape. Nam te præcipue in suis urbibus colit, ora Hellespontia, cæteris ostreosior oris.—Catullus, Carm. xviii.

[16] See Plate II., figure 2.

[17] From possessing such an article of VIRTU, his Eminence must surely have been of the opinion of Cardinal Bembo—that there is no sin below the navel.

[18] Falce minax et parte tui majore, Priape, Ad fontem quæso, dic mihi, qua sit iter.—Priapeia Carm.

[19] See note [21], p. 11.

[20] See S. Augustine, Civ. Dei., lib. 6, cap. 9, and Lactantius De falsa religione. lib. I.

[21] See Plate I., figure 4. This phallus was found at Pompeii over a baker's door.

[22] Thus his statue was placed in orchards as a scare-crow to drive away superstitious thieves, as well as children and birds.

Pomarii tutela, diligens rubro Priape, furibus minare mutino.—Priapeia Carm. 73.

[23] Ind. Antiq. ii., p, 361.

[24] Ind. Antiq., vol. I., p. 247.

[25] Voyage dans la Chine par Avril, Liv. iii., p. 194.

[26] Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 269.

[27] Worship of Priapus.

[28] Ibid., p 48.

[29] For some ingenious and learned observations on the Tau or Crux Ansata see Classical Journal, No. 39, p. 182.

[30] Chap. ix., v. 3. "And the Lord said unto him: Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the forehead of the men that sigh and cry for the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."

[31] For a description of some of the above-mentioned Crosses, see Plate V., also "Voyage dans la basse et la haute-Egypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte, 1802 et 1829," par Denon—Planches 48, 78.

[32] This city was the birth place of the deity Priapus, whose orgies were there constantly celebrated. Alexander the Great, in his Persian expedition, resolved to destroy Lampsacus on account of its many vices, or rather from a jealousy of its adherence to Persia; but it was saved by the artifice of the philosopher Anaxamenes, who, having heard that the king had sworn to refuse whatever he should ask him, begged him to destroy the city.

[33] Journal d'Henri III. par l'Etoile. Tom. 5.

[34] Historie Religieuse du Calendrier, p. 420.

[35] Johannis Goropii Becani, Origines Antwerpianæ, 1569, lib. i., p.p. 26 and 101.

[36] The foreskins, still extant, of the Saviour, are reckoned to be twelve in number. One was in the possession of the monks of Coulombs; another at the Abbey of Charroux; a third at Hildesheim, in Germany; a fourth at Rome, in the Church of St. Jean-de-Latran; a fifth at Antwerp; a sixth at Puy-en-Velay, in the Church of Notre Dame, &c., &c. So much for relics!

[37] Dulaure, Singularités Historiques de l'Historie de Paris, p. 77. Paris, 1825.

[38] Letter of Sir W. Hamilton prefixed to Payne Knight's "Worship of Priapus."

For a representation of the ancient, Ex voto, in silver, the size of the original see Plate VI., figure 1. It is copied from an additional plate inserted by M. Panizzi, late librarian of the British Museum, in the fly-leaf of Payne Knight's "Worship of Phallus."

[39] To these the canon law adds sorcery, ligature or point-tying.

[40] Zachais, Quæst. medico. leg. lib. II., tit. I, quæst. I.

[41] See Lectures on Comparative Anatomy by Sir Everard Home, Bart. Vol. III., p. 166. London 1823.

[42] Lib. I., Epigram. 91.

[43] Juvenal Sat. I., vv. 204, 105.

[44] Orlando Furioso, Can. I, stanz. 49, 60.

[45] Rapport, Tom. I., p. 335.

[46] Sir Charles Morgan, Philos. of Morals, p. 25.

[47] Nosographie philosophique.

[48] Medical Essays published by a society in Edinburgh, vol. I., p. 270. Case reported by W. Cockburn, M.D.

[49] Rapport, tome II., p. 422.

[50] Essays, Book I., chap. xx. Cotton's translation.

[51] Hippocrates de Aer: aqua et loco, 210.

[52] Treatise on the Venereal Disease.

[53] Comment. de Aer: aqua et loco, 210.

[54] Voltaire, Pucelle d'Orléans, Chant. xii.

[55] Bigarrures du Seigneur des Accords.

[56] Herodotus Enterpe clxxxii.

[57] De Legibus, lib. ii.

[58] Ecologa viii.

[59] Amor., lib. iii., Eleg. 6.

[60] De Asino Aureo, lib. ii., v. 3.

[61] Tacitus Annal., lib. iv., 22.

[62] Lib. v., Sentent, tit. 23.

[63] De rebus gestis Francorum, lib. 4. cap. 94.

[64] Histoire des Français.

[65] Nominated to the Bishopric of Evreux by Henry IV. of France. His favourite authors were Rabelais and Montaigne.

[66] Demonologie, 1603, Book I., Chap. III., p. 12.

[67] "Hercules, puer, L. Virgines, una nocte, gravidus reddit."—Clius, lib. 14, cap. 8.

[68] Traité premier de la dissolution de Mariage pour l'impuissance et froideur de l'homme, ou de la Femme, par Antoine Hotman, p. 63.

[69] Tableau de l'Amour considéré dans l'état du Mariage, par II., chap. 2, art. 3.

[70] Art. Portugal. rem. F.

[71] Boileau Despréaux, Satires, Satire VIII.

[72] Willick's Lectures on Diet and Regimen, p. 538, et seq.

[73] From [Greek: mandra], relating to cattle, and [Greek: agaron], baneful, injurious.

[74] Genesis, Chap. xxx., v. 14, 15, 16, 17. The last verse must be considered as decisive of the efficacy of the mandrake.

[75] Solomon's Song, chap. vii. v. 13.

[76] See the word Dudaïm, in Dr. Kitto's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature. The learned doctor has given a sketch of the plant Mandragora, a copy of which the reader will find in plate VI.

[77] Onkelos was a celebrated rabbin contemporary with St. Paul, and to whom the Targum, that is, a translation or paraphrase of the Holy Scriptures, is attributed.

[78] Lib. IV., cap. 76.

[79] Quoted by Oct. Celsius in his "Hierobotanicon," Part I., par. 5. art. Dudaim, from Epiphan: Physiolog. c. 4.

[80] Pliny's "Natural History," Vol. IV., p. 397 (Bohn's Classical Library).

[81] Columella De hortorum Cultu., v. 19, 20.

[82] See a manuscript Interrogatory still preserved in the "Bibliothèque Nationale," Fonds de Baluze, Rouleau 5.

[83] See "De l'imposture des Diables," par Jacques Grévin, Tom. IV., p. 359.

[84] From Weir "De Mag: demonia:" Cours Complet d'agriculture par l'Abbé Rosier, Tom. VI., p. 401.

[85] Récollections des choses merveilleuses Advenues en notre temps par George Chastelain, Edition de Coustelier, p. 150.

[86] Lettres d'Amabed, Vol. XXXIV., p. 261. Edition Beuchot, Paris.

[87] Mandragola, Atto II. Scena 6. See also La Fontaine's tale of "La Mandragore," founded upon the above comedy.

[88] See Warburton on Shakespear's Othello, Act I., Scene 8.

"By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks."

[89] See Speed's Historie of Great Britaine. Richard III. Book II., page 913 folio edition, 1632.

[90] Exercitatio de Rachelis Deliciis, 420, 1678.

[91] Atlantica illustrata, 1733.

[92] Hierobotanicon, 1745.

[93] "Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter, A.D., 1697."

[94] Orchis is a Greek word signifying testicle, a name given by the ancients to this plant on account of the supposed resemblance of its root to that organ.

[95] Eustathii Commentarii ad Homerum, Vol. I., p. 325, 403-9. Editio Lipsiæ, 1827.

[96] Juliani Calixenæ Epistola.

[97] "Amatorio poculo furorem versus, quum aliquot libros per intervalla conscripserat."

[98] Epist. dissuas: ad Rufinum C. 22. Tom XII. p. 245, ad Varon.

[99] Remarks on the life and poems of Lucretius, p. vi. (Bohn's Classical Library).

[100] Probably to Anticyra, a Greek town situated at the mouth of the river Sperchius, and reputed to produce the genuine hellebore, recommended by the ancient physicians as a cure for insanity, whence the well known adage, "Naviget Anticyram."

[101] Sueton. Calig. 50.

[102] Juvenal. Sat. vi. v. 614.

[103] Hor. Epod Lib. Carm. V. 1703. See also the admirable notes of Dacier and Sanadon upon the above ode.

[104] Disquisitionum Magicarum, Lib. III. Quæstio III. De Amatorio Malaficio, page 7.

[105] Cinq livres de l'imposture et tromperie des diables. Lib. II., p. 216, 1569.

[106] De Margarum Daemonomania. Lib. I., Cap. III., p. 27.

[107] Æneid, Lib. IV., v. 13, 14, 15, and 16.

[108] Pausanias, Græciæ Descriptio, Lib. V., c. 27.

[109] In his work "De valetudine tuendâ."

[110] Traité universel des drogues simples.

[111] The Holy Guide by John Heyden, Gent., [Greek: Philonomos] a servant of God and a Secretary of Nature, Lib. v. p. 61.

[112] Ibid., p. 62.

[113] Anatomy of Melancholy.

[114] Essays, Vol. II., p. 262-3. Translated by Cotton. London, 1743.

[115] "Cujus rei istud est argumentum, quod ubi rem veneream exercemus, tantillo emisse, imbecilles evadimus."—De Genitura.

[116] Tome 52, p. 286, et seq.

[117] Juvenal, Sat. 6, v. 302. "Ad venerem," says Lubinus in a note on this passage, "miris modis instigant (i.e., ostreæ), inde turpissimæ illæ bestiæ (feminæ) ostrea comedebant, ut ad Venerem promptiores essent."

[118] De la génération de l'homme, p. 272.

[119] Traité des dispenses et de Carême, Paris, 1709, en 12mo, réimprimé trois fois.

[120] Names given to the female slaves or concubines in the harem of the Sultan.

[121] A large province of the Deccan, said to have been famous, in ancient times, for its diamond mines.

[122] That Coryphæus of voluptuaries, George IV., so highly appreciated this quality in truffles, that his Ministers at the courts of Turin, Naples, Florence, &c., were specially instructed to forward by a state messenger to the Royal Kitchen any of those fungi that might be found superior in size, delicacy or flavour.

[123] Physiologie du Gout, par Brillat Savarin, Paris, 1859.

[124] Martial, Epigram, lib. xiii. epig. 34.

[125] Ducange, Glossaire.

[126] J. H. Meibomius de flagrorum usu in Re medica et Venerea, Paris, 1792, p. 125.

[127] See Macaronéana, par M. Octave Delepierre, Paris, 1852, p. 3.

[128] Thevet, Portraits des Vies des Hommes Illustres, Vol. I., p. 13, fol. edit., Paris, 1584.

[129] Hume's Hist. of England, Vol. I., p. 348.

[130] Dissertatio Inauguralis de Ambra, § iv. p. 36.

[131] Medicamentum quod non solum potenter stimulat, sed vel efftum senem, pro brevi tempore, ad juventutem iterum restituit. Ibid. § viii., p. 44.

[132] Née dans une condition obscure, vouée au libertinage dés sa plus tendre jeunesse, autant par goût que par état, Made. Du Barry ne put offrir à son auguste amant, malgré la fleur de la jeunesse et les brillants appas dont elle étoit encore pourvue, que les restes de la plus vile canaille, de la prostitution." Vie privée des maîtresses de Louis XV., p. 153.—"You are no doubt curious to hear an opinion of Madame Du Barri's beauty from the lips of one who has seen her both in her days of prosperity and after her downfall. She was a person of small, almost diminutive stature, extremely frail and delicate in feature, which saved her from being vulgar; but even from the first, she always wore that peculiarly fane look which she owed to a youth of dissipation, a maturity of unbounded indulgence. At the period of my visit she was about thirty-six years of age, but, from her child-like form and delicacy of countenance, appeared much younger, and her gambades and unrestrained gestures of supreme delight on having, as she said, quelqu'un à qui parler, did not seem displaced. Although alone, and evidently not in expectation of visitors, her toilet was brilliant and recherché, the result of the necessity of killing time."—"Talleyrand Papers."

[133] Espion de la Cour.

[134] Gazetier Cuirassé, ou Anecdotes Scandaleuses de la Cour de France.

[135] In his "Praxis Medica Admiranda," wherein he also gives the formula of an electuary ad excitandum tentiginem nulli secundum, p, 295, Observ. XCI., as well as a recipe for pills ad Coitûs ignaviam, CXIII., p. 297.

[136] Encyclopdia Parthensis, Article Cachunde.

[137] See his Premier Traité de l'homme et de son essentielle anatomie, avec les éléments et ce qui est en eux, de ses maladies, médicine et absolus remèdes, etc., Paris, 1588.

[138] Cent. 2.

[139] See Celius, lib. xiv., cap. 3.

[140] Histoire de Ferdinand et Isabelle, Tom. II., 326. Paris, 1766.

[141] Biographie Universelle, Art. Wallenstein.

[142] Detested by the Parisians, Dubois was the object of innumerable caricatures, of which the most sanglante was one representing him "à genoux aux pieds d'une fille de joie qui prenait de ce sale écoulement qui afflige les femmes, tous les mois, pour lui en rougir sa calotte et le faire Cardinal." See Erotika Biblion. Paris, 1792, p. 52.

[143] Mémoires du Cardinal Dubois, vol. I., p. 3.

[144] Ælius Tetrabilis, I., Disc. Chap. 32 and 33.

[145] Browne's Travels in Africa, etc., p. 343.

[146] La génération de l'homme, ou tableau de l'amour conjugal. Tom. 1., p. 276.

[147] Ibid., p. 232.

[148] Venette, Génération de l'homme, Tom. I., p. 279.

[149] De cultu hortorum, v. 108.

[150] Moretum, v. 85.

[151] Mag. Nat., Lib. vii.

[152] Mala Bacchica tanta olim in amoribus prævalerunt, ut coronæ ex illis statuæ Bacchi ponerentur.

[153] Surag radis ad coitum summe facit: si quis comedat aut infusionem bibat, membrum subite erigitur. Leo Afric., Lib, IX., cap. ult., p. 302.

[154] Gomez (Ferdinand) of Ciudad Real, a celebrated physician, born 1388, died 1457.

[155] Mag. Nat. Lib. VII., c. 16.

[156] Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias Orientales chap. LXI., p. 360, Burgos, 1578.

[157] Travels in Africa, &c., p. 341.

[158] Lignac. A physical view of man and woman in a state of marriage. Vol. I., p. 190.

[159] Turcæ ad Levenzinum contra Comitem Ludovicum Souches pugnantes, opio exaltati turpiter cæsi, et octo mille numero occisi, mentulas rigidas tulere. Christen. Opium Hist.

[160] It was, perhaps, the knowledge of this fact that suggested to La Fontaine the lines:—

"Un muletier à ce jeu Vaut trois rois."

"To play at which game, I'm sure it is clear, Three kings are no match for one muleteer."

[161] Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain. Tom. II., p. 123.

[162] Cabanis, Rapport, &c., Tom. II., p. 89.

[163] Essais philosophiques sur les murs de divers animaux étrangers.

[164] "The care on thee depending Hath fed upon the body of my father, Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold; Other less fine in carat is more precious, Preserving life in medicine potable."

Henry IV., sec. part, act iv. sc. v.

[165] Lettres sur François Rabelais. Let. II.

[166] De Pnitentiâ Decretorum, lib. xix.

[167] See Millengen's "Curiosities of Medical Experience," art. Flagellation Vol. II., p. 47 et seq.

[168] Medic., Lib. III., art. 12.

[169] See Richter, Opuscula medica Col. I., p. 273, "Qui novit ex stimulantium fonte, cardiaca, aphrodisiaca, diaphoretica, diuretica aliaque non infirmi ordinis medicamenta peti, perspicit plenius quam larga verberibus bene merendi sit, uti præsertim in torpore nervorum, paralysi, impotentia ad Venerem et naturalium excretionum eluxit."

[170] Author of the work entitled, "De flagrorum usu in re venerea," Lug. Bat., 1639, with the motto:

"Delicias pariunt Veneri crudelia flagra, Dum nocet, illa juvat, dum juvat, ecce nocet.

"Lo! cruel stripes the sweets of love ensure, And painful pleasures pleasing pains procure."

[171] Millingen, "Curiosities of Medical Experience." Vol. II., p. 52.

[172] To this personage may justly be applied the French epitaph upon one who died under similar circumstances:

"Je suis mort de l'amour enterpris Entre les jambes d'une dame, Bien heureux d'avoir rendu l'âme, Au même lieu où je l'ai pris."

[173] See his work, contra Astrologos, Lib. III., cap. 27.

[174] Petri Ablardi Abbatis Rugensis et Heloissæ Abbatissæ Paracletensis Epistolæ. Epist. I., p. 10.

[175] Ibid., Epist. III., p. 81.

[176] See Meibomius, p. 43, note a. Edit. Paris, 1792, 12mo.

[177] Name given to persons having only one testicle.

[178] uvres, Tom. I, p. 283. Ed. 1714.

[179] Travels in Siberia in 1661, Tom. I., p. 319.

[180] Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales. Art. Pollution.

[181] Confessions, Tom. I.

[182] De Nasturcio mira refert Dioscoridas I., 2, c. 185.

[183] Satyricon, Caput xxxviii.

[184] Pract. part. ii. cap. de passioni membré-génital.

[185] Ducatiana ii., b. 505.

[186] Curiosities of Medical Experience, vol. II., p. 55.

[187] Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 3, memb. 3, subj. 5.

[188] Pornodidascalus seu Colloquium Muliebre Petri Aretini ingeniossimi et ferè incomparabilis virtutum et vitiorum demonstratoris: De Astu nefario, horrendisque dolis, quibus impudicæ mulieres juventuti incautæ insidiantur.—Francofurti. Anno 1623.

[189] Verum omni istâ sciencâ (magica) (says Lucretia) nunquam potui movere cor hominis solâ vero salivâ mea (id est ampleux et basiis) inungens tam furiosè furere tam bestialiter obstupefieri plurimos coegi ut instar idoil me Amoresque meos adorarint.—p. 47-8.

[190] Othello, Act iii. Sc. 10.

[191] Sir Thos. Browne's Works, Vol. III., p. 89. Bohn's Edit.

[192] Origen, one of the Fathers of the Church, born in A.D. 185, is a melancholy proof how far the reason may be perverted by erroneous views in religious matters; for according to Fulgos, "ut corpus ab omni venerea labe mundum servaret, omnique suspicione careret, sectis genitalibus membris, eunuchum se fecit." He, however, lived long enough to condemn his error. See his 15th sermon upon St. Matthew, cap. 19, v. 12; his work against Celsus, lib. 7; and his 7th Treatise upon the 18th and 19th Chapters of St. Matthew.

THE END