xxii. The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. 



the recent appearance in Germany of the 

 venereal scourge, which h^ calls the 

 French disease -Morbus Gallicus and 

 Lues Gallica. Now it appears to be 

 certain, from abundant historical testi- 

 mony, that the name of Morbus Gallicus 

 was given to the complaint after 

 the expedition of the French, under 

 Charles VIII., to Naples, which took 

 place in 1495.* 



Basil Valentine is one of the few 

 Alchemical writers who does not, at least 

 in the undoubtedly genuine works, such 

 as the Currus Triumphalis and the 



* A synopsis of the testimony is as follows : In 1497, 

 Nicolaus Leonicenus, of Vicentia, calls it by this name, 

 though he denies the novelty of the disease, saying : " I can 

 by no means imagine, with some, that this complaint never 

 appeared till now." In 1498, Natalis Montesaurus, of 

 Verona, remarks upon '' those dispositions commonly called 

 A/al Franzozo." In 1499, the Spaniard, Caspar Torellf, 

 narrates that the disease broke out in Alvernia in the year 

 1493, thence making its way into Spain, afterwards into 

 Italy, and from Italy into all Europe. Joannes de Vigo, of 

 Genoa, writing in 1503, says that it appeared almost all over 

 Italy in the month of December, 1494, and he adds : " The 

 French disease, when once it comes to be confirmed, seldom 

 admits of any other than a palliative cure." Leonardus 

 Schmai, of Salzburg, in 1518, bears witness to the same date, 

 and makes use of the same name. In the year following, 



