265 DISEASES CLASS II. 2. 3. 4. 



fear of inability, he went with fears, that he ftiould be poflefT- 

 ed with too much defire, and too much power, fo as to become 

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

 happy to have (hortened the time ; and when he had once 

 broken the fpell, his mind and powers went on together ; and 

 his mind never returned to its former ftate. 



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

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

 plained, that his defire for the fex remained, and that he occa- 

 fionally parted with femen, but with defect of a perfect tenfio 

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

 of tincture of cantharides on going to bed without efFecl: ; and 

 that as the debility or inirritability of the fyftem in this cafe 

 rather than any mental affection feemed to be a part of the 

 cuufe, he was advifed to ftimulate the fphinler ani by the in- 

 troduction of a piece of the root of ginger, as is done by the 

 horfe-dealers to fale-horfes. And, however ridiculous the oper- 

 ation may appear, he allured me, that it fucceeded ; which I 

 fuppofe might be owing to the fympathy between the fphindler 

 am and the penis -, which is fo often the caufe of painful fenfa- 

 tion in the former, when a done at the neck of the bladder af- 

 fects the latter j and converfely when painful piles affect the 

 rectum, a ftrangury is fometimes produced by fympathy. 



For reftoring the venereal power M. Le Roy thinks phofpho- 

 rus taken in a dofe of a quarter of a grain rubbed with oil or 

 yolk of egg, or honey ; or even the aci|^)f phofphorus, to pof- 

 fefs great efficacy. Med. Review, Vol.'^v. p. 204. The water 

 in which phofphorus has been kept fome time, probably pof- 

 feifes fome of this acid, and is alfo recommended by M. Le 

 Roy. I ought here to add, that I have been lately informed, 

 that a gentleman directed four grains of phofphorus to be made 

 into pills with conferve, with defign of increafmg his venereal 

 power. He was feized with intolerable fenfe of heat at his 

 ftomach, pulfe feeble, but not quickened, livid countenance, 

 forenefa of his bowels to the touch v and incefiant vomitings, by 

 which he at lafl brought up fome blood. His illnefs laded five 

 or fix days. He did not acknowledge any caufe of his fudden 

 illnefs, but faid he was certain emetics would cure him, and took 

 two by his own requeft. After his death, the apothecary men- 

 tioned his having directed the pills as above, which were made 

 three days before lie was taken ill 5 and he was believed to have 

 taken about half of them. 



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

 tharides, 



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

 ters 



