DISEASES N CLASS II. 2. 2. 4 



fear of inability, he went, with fears, that he should be possess- 

 ed with too much desire, and too much power, so as to become 

 uneasy to him, which really happened, as he would have been 

 happy to have shortened the time; and when he had once broken 

 the spell, his mind and powers went on together; and his mind 

 never returned to its former state. 



A gentleman about 50 years of age, who had lived too freely, 

 as he informed me, both in respect to wine and women, com- 

 plained that his desire for the sex remained, and that he occa- 

 sionally parted with semen, but with defect of a perfect tensio 

 penis, and that he had tried 20 drops of laudanum, and 20 drops 

 of tincture of cantharides on going to bed without effect; and 

 that as the debility or inirritability of the system in this case 

 rather than any mental affection seemed to be a part of the cause, 

 he was advised to stimulate the sphincter ani by the introduction 

 of a piece of the root of ginger, as is done by the horse-dealers to 

 sale-horses. And however ridiculous the operation may appear, 

 he assured me that it succeeded; which I suppose might be owing 

 to the sympathy between the sphincter ani and the penis; which 

 is so often the cause of painful sensation in the former, when a 

 stone at the neck of the bladder affects the latter; and conversely 

 when painful piles affect the rectum, a strangury is sometimes 

 produced by sympathy. 



For restoring the venereal power M. Le Roy thinks phospho- 

 rus taken in the dose of a quarter of a grain rubbed with oil or 

 yolk of egg, or honey; or even the acid of phosphorous, to pos- 

 sess great efficacy. Med. Review, Vol. V. p. 204. The water in 

 which phosphorus has been kept some time, probably possesses 

 some of this acid, and is also recommended by M. Le Roy. 

 I ought here to add, that I have been lately informed, that a gen- 

 tleman directed four grains of phosphorus to be made into pills 

 with conserve, with design of increasing his venereal power: 

 He was seized with intolerable sense of heat at his stomach, 

 pulse feeble, but not quickened, livid countenance, soreness of 

 his bowels to the touch, and incessant vomitings, by which he 

 at last brought up some blood. His illness lasted five or six days. 

 He did not acknowledge any cause of his sudden illness, but 

 said he was certain emetics would cure him, and took two by his 

 own request. After his death, the apothecary mentioned his hav- 

 ing directed the pills as above, which were made three days be- 

 fore he was taken ill; and he was believed to have taken about 

 half of them. 



M. M. Chalybeates. Opium. Bark. Tincture of can- 

 tharides. 



4. Sterilitas. Barrenness. One of the ancient medical wri- 



